Western Sydney Wanderers have accused Al-Hilal and their cocky coach Laurentiu Reghecampf of disrespecting them and have vowed to make the Saudi Arabian giants pay in the Asian Champions League final.
The Wanderers won the first leg 1-0 at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night to raise hopes that a piece of Australian football history is within reach in the deciding bout in Riyadh next Sunday morning (AEDT).
However, if Reghecampf is worried he isn’t letting on, with the multi-million dollar Al-Hilal supremo saying post-match he’s “sure” Al-Hilal will crush the Wanderers’ dreams in the second leg.
Reghecampf described Tomi Juric’s match-winning goal as lucky and intimated an emphatic Al-Hilal victory in front of 65,000 fans at King Fahd Stadium is as good as certain.
“The fact is we lost the game and I’m not happy about that. But I’m sure the next game we’re going to win,” said Reghecampf.
“The players are going to score the two goals to win the Cup.
“I think the goal was unlucky.
“In the second game we have the power and we’re going to change the result.”
Wanderers centre-back Antony Golec – who delivered a magic through-ball for Juric to score – rolled his eyes when told of Reghecampf’s comments.
Having heard the Romanian-born coach give a smug pre-match press conference, the Wanderers weren’t surprised the controversial Saudi mentor was once again talking a big game.
Golec said Al-Hilal had shown the Wanderers a lack of respect and Western Sydney players are eager to teach them a lesson.
“We show them the respect and I think they probably didn’t show us the respect,” he said.
“And now they’ve witnessed something they didn’t expect.
“We’re going to go there attacking and we’re not going to sit off. We’ll play our style and see if it comes off.
“I think a lot of people have underestimated us. We came into this competition as the new boys and a lot of people, including a few fans thought we wouldn’t do this well.”
Golec’s divine ball to Juric in the 64th minute caught the Al-Hilal defence napping, and the 24-year-old was putting the critical play down to instinct.
“I know it’s hard for a centre-back, when you’re running towards your own goal and you get early passes like that (it’s difficult),” he said.
“I knew straight away. I knew what I was going to do and it came off.”
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