Western Sydney now have an upset over fierce rivals Sydney FC in their sights having begun their Asian Champions League defence with a shock win over Japanese giants Kashima Antlers.
The Wanderers defied all expectations on Wednesday night toppling the J-League’s most successful club 3-1 at Kashima Stadium.
They entered the match appearing a shadow of the side which conquered Asia three months ago with their A-League season in tatters sitting bottom of the ladder having triumphed just once in their last 16 outings.
But they emerged victorious and with a desperately needed morale boost which Socceroo Matthew Spiranovic feels could help spark a late revival of their A-League season – beginning with a defeat of red-hot Sydney FC in Saturday’s Parramatta Stadium derby.
“This will do wonders for our confidence,” he told AAP.
“It’s another big game on Saturday but we can definitely upset them.
“Looking back at that first game at home (1-1 in round eight) I thought we were extremely unlucky not to win.
“So we’ll go out there very positive and take the game to them and I’m sure we’ll be celebrating with our fans at the end because it’s been a while.”
The Wanderers took the lead on Wednesday courtesy of an own goal by Gen Shoji before Shoma Doi levelled.
Yojiro Takahagi and Mark Bridge, who was involved in all three Wanderers’ goals, rounded out the scoring to give the title holders the perfect start to their defence.
Spiranovic said they were largely fuelled by a desire to defend their crown but insisted Wednesday’s result was no surprise.
“I don’t know if it was about us proving a point but we’re defending our title and we’ll do everything we can to do that,” he said.
“It’s another massive opportunity to create history again so that’s huge motivation and the boys lifted tonight.
“But we actually had a lot of confidence heading into the game.
“I know our results back home haven’t gone our way but we feel over the last two weeks with the football we’ve been playing we’re heading on the right track. Tonight just confirmed that.
“We’ll just get better as the season goes on now.”
The Wanderers fielded a vastly changed side to that which played in their 2-1 loss to Adelaide on the weekend.
Player of the ACL tournament last season, goalkeeper Ante Covic, was left behind along with the likes of Iacopo La Rocca, Brendan Hamill, Romeo Castelen and Nikita Rukavytsya with coach Tony Popovic likely resting them for Saturday’s match as the Wanderers enter a busy schedule.
They’ll arrive from Japan on Friday morning with less than 24 hours to prepare for the Sydney derby then host Guangzhou Evergrande in another ACL group game on Wednesday before facing Brisbane Roar away four days later.
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