Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Sydney: AFC Champions League debutants Western Sydney Wanderers emphatically qualified for the last 16 of the AFC Champions League as Group H winners after the A-League side recorded a 5-0 win over China’s Guizhou Renhe on Tuesday.
Shannon Cole set Western Sydney on their way after just six minutes at Parramatta Stadium against a Guizhou side unable to qualify for the knockout stage before Labinot Haliti took advantage of a defensive error to double the lead with 13 minutes remaining.
That opened the floodgates and with Aaron Mooy, Shinji Ono and Nikolai Topor-Stanley extending the advantage in the closing stages, Western Sydney will face the runner-up from Group F in May’s Round of 16 with fellow A-League side Central Coast Mariners, 2013 finalists FC Seoul, China’s Beijing Guoan and J.League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima all in contention ahead of Wednesday’s final round of fixtures.
Needing to win to guarantee qualification, Western Sydney enjoyed the ideal start as Cole superbly controlled Antony Golec’s attempted shot on his chest inside the penalty area before swiveling and dispatching an eye-catching volley into the bottom corner past static Guizhou goalkeeper Sheng Peng.
Western Sydney remained the dominant force for the majority of the second half but the home side failed to add to their advantage as Tomi Juric and Kwabena Appiah failed to convert the best of the chances.
And Guizhou almost snatched an equaliser in the last minute of the first half as captain Qu Bo did well to create space for himself inside the Western Sydney penalty area only to fire into the side netting from a promising position.
Western Sydney’s lead, though, remained largely unthreatened in the second half and it was the home side who came the closest to netting as Juric’s close range header was acrobatically pushed over the crossbar by Sheng with 17 minutes remaining.
But just four minutes later the home side finally added a second as Haliti took advantage of an over hit pass from Wan Houliang intended for team-mate Guo Sheng and the striker raced clear before beating an exposed Sheng from inside the area.
And a third soon arrived as substitute Mooy sent Sheng the wrong way from the penalty spot after 82 minutes after captain Michel Beauchamp had been pulled down by Guo inside the area.
The best goal of the night then arrived four minutes later as Sheng punched a corner clear to the edge of the area for Ono to unleash an unstoppable rising strike which gave the Guizhou goalkeeper little chance.
And Western Sydney completed the scoring with two minutes remaining as Topor-Stanley headed home a corner from inside the six-yard area.