The Lion City Sailors have given themselves a strong chance of qualifying for the 2024/25 Asian Football Confederation Champions League (ACL) Two final, following a stellar 2-0 victory over Australia’s Sydney FC in the first leg of the semi-final tie on Wednesday (9 April) at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
Coming up against one of the A-League’s most decorated sides, the Sailors produced a performance that proved they belonged on this stage – with a touch of magic from Bart Ramselaar and a clinical finish by Lennart Thy giving them a crucial two-goal advantage ahead of the return leg in Sydney.
Sailors Head Coach Aleksandar Ranković hailed his side’s collective spirit in the post-match press conference, as he praised the unity and discipline on display from the first whistle to the last.
“Every game we’ve played this season has been a team effort,” said Ranko. “Tonight was an amazing performance – every player, whether starting or coming off the bench, understood the assignment and executed our plan perfectly. That makes my job much easier, and I couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”
Both teams started the match tentatively, but it was the Sailors who found the breakthrough in spectacular fashion in the 18th minute.
Receiving the ball on the edge of the box via a Diogo Costa pass, Bart needed no second invitations to unleash a stunning strike that crashed off the underside of the bar and into the net to send the 4,213-strong home crowd into raptures.
“It was an amazing goal – definitely one of the best I’ve seen this season,” said Ranko. “I’ve been encouraging Bart to take more shots like that…if you give him space, he can produce moments of real quality – and that was one of them.”
That wonder strike capped off a near-perfect first half for the Sailors, who not only limited a Sydney attack which featured the likes of Douglas Costa to barely a sniff at goal, but also looked dangerous every time they surged forward.
Buoyed by the momentum in the first 45 minutes, the Sailors picked up right where they left off after the break – and it took just eight minutes to double their lead.
A delightful ball over the top from Diogo was expertly brought down in the box by the in-form Lennart, who rifled an unstoppable effort into the roof of the net from a seemingly impossible angle for his 10th goal in his last six outings across all competitions.
The introduction of the returning Maxime Lestienne on 59 minutes gave the Sailors a further lift, but it was Sydney who nearly pulled one back seven minutes later, when the ball fell invitingly to substitute Adrian Segecic in the area – only for the forward’s effort to flash narrowly wide of Izwan Mahbud’s post.
Lennart then had the chance to kill the tie in the 80th minute when he burst clear on goal, but Sydney’s Harrison Devenish-Meares produced a last-ditch save to deny the German striker a brace.
Nonetheless, the Sailors’ resolute backline held firm to see out their third clean sheet of the ACL Two campaign, as the hosts recorded another memorable continental night at Jalan Besar.
With this latest result, the Sailors have now scored two goals or more in eight of their 11 ACL Two matches, taking their tournament tally to an impressive 25.
Nonetheless, while the Sailors hold a strong two-goal advantage heading into the second leg, man-of-the-match Lennart was quick to keep things in perspective.
“We can all be happy with the performance we put in today,” said Lennart. “We stayed compact and played to our strengths on the counter-attack, but there are still 90 minutes to go in Sydney. None of us are thinking about easing off – it’s important that we stick to our game plan like we did today and keep doing what’s been working for us.”
The Sailors will now shift their focus back to domestic duties, with a Singapore Premier League (SPL) clash against Brunei DPMM on Saturday (12 April), before making the 6,300km journey to Sydney for the decisive second leg next Wednesday (16 April), where a place in the final awaits.
