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Sydney FC have taken down Guangzhou Evergrande, edging the cashed-up Chinese heavyweights 2-1 to steer their Asian Champions League (ACL) campaign back on track.
Huang Bowen cancelled out Robert Stambolziev’s first-half opener at Allianz Stadium on Wednesday night, before substitute Milos Dimitrijevic struck a dramatic 88th-minute winner.
The question had always been whether Sydney could stack up against Evergrande, the reigning ACL champions and one of Asia’s most expensively assembled sides.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side were classy but displayed a fitness befitting a squad still in Chinese Super League pre-season.
Guangzhou’s $65 million man Jackson Martinez lurked and took a couple of stabs, but could not put a goal away against his less-opulent but grittier Australian counterparts.
Having warned they wouldn’t be intimidated, Sydney gave as good as they got, David Carney and Milos Ninkovic thriving in space not usually afforded to them in the A-League.
Maybe that was the key, as it was one of the Sky Blues’ best performances this season and one that yielded the opening goal.
Off a corner and some superb build-up play, Carney latched onto a through ball and headed to Shane Smeltz.
The striker flicked his own header back to Stambolziev, whose left boot sent a snappy first-time finish past Guangzhou gloveman Zeng Cheng.
Sydney barely had minutes to celebrate before the unthinkable happened.
Seb Ryall yanked Martinez to the turf by his shirt, earning a yellow card and conceding a penalty.
Goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic incredibly saved Ricardo Goulart’s strike from the spot, but an equaliser came three minutes later.
On the counter-attack, Huang found space on the right flank and drove in a goalward bullet, which Aaron Calver inadvertently buried into the net while trying to clear.
From there, the Sky Blues absorbed wave after wave of attack, ACL debutant Brandon O’Neill and Matt Jurman doing a particularly diligent job.
When their defence had no answer, Janjetovic made more crucial saves.
The second half was just as open-ended, and chances came and went for both sides.
Smeltz and Ninkovic both fired wide and Yu Hanchao botched a simple point-blank strike.
Both coaches, Graham Arnold and Scolari, were on fire in the dugout but only the former had cause to celebrate when, two minutes from time, Carney flicked a shot to Dimitrijevic, who threaded through two defenders and made no mistake.
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