Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Parramatta: Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic faces a welcome selection headache ahead of Wednesday’s AFC Champions League re-match with China’s Guangzhou Evergrande with strikers Tomi Juric and Kerem Bulut in contention to start for the defending champions.
Australia’s Western Sydney beat then defending champions Guangzhou on away goals in last year’s quarter-finals en route to landing a maiden continental title, but have struggled for form since despite last week’s 3-1 win over Japan’s Kashima Antlers in Group H.
And while Popovic’s side lost 4-3 to Sydney FC on Saturday, Bulut scored twice on his Western Sydney debut before being replaced by AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 winner Juric who impressed last week in Japan.
“It’s good, it’s a good headache to have. I’m pleased Tomi played well in Japan and Kerem was fantastic in the derby. Kerem hasn’t played football in seven months and once he and some others get 10-12 games under their belt you’ll see the best of them,” said Popovic.
“We’re happy to have that selection problem.”
Juric scored the only goal in last year’s quarter-final first leg at Parramatta Stadium before netting the crucial second half penalty in the return fixture as Western Sydney edged out Guangzhou on away goals following a 2-2 draw on aggregate.
“Most of the squad is there from last year and they’ve added some fantastic foreigners in their own right. We’ve seen similar strengths to what they had and the new foreigners, they’ve added different attributes in terms of individuals,” added Popovic.
“We respect them as a club and we’re ready for a huge battle. We’re confident, we’re the reigning champions we’ve started the campaign very well, we’re playing good football and we look forward to a really good night.”
Guangzhou began their campaign with a 1-0 win over 2013 finalists FC Seoul at home last week with new Brazilian signing Ricardo Goulart scoring the only goal for Fabio Cannavaro’s side.
“Wednesday’s match is going to be a difficult match and a really tough one. We have strong opponents in the Wanderers who won the Asian Champions League last year,” said Cannavaro, who replaced Marcello Lippi as Guangzhou coach at the end of last year.
“I spoke with Mr. Marcello Lippi about this team because he knows them much better. I’ve also watched this team’s matches this year and in the A-League they aren’t doing really well. In saying that, this year they are playing much better football as a team and we have to pay attention to this.
“We know very well what happened last year and I saw the match. We came here to play football, our match. We have the quality to win the match.”
Photo: WSG