Bridge says Wanderers total focus now is on Asian Champions League final
Mark Bridge says the Wanderers total focus now is on the Asian Champions League final against Al-Hilal starting tomorrow.
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As A club we are trying to put the two A-League losses to Melbourne and Sydney behind us, at least for the next few weeks, to concentrate on the biggest game in our history – the Asian Champions League final.
Losing 3-2 in the Sydney derby just goes to show if you aren’t 100 per cent focused on the game you are going to get punished.
Getting to play the first leg of the ACL final against Saudi Arabian giants Al-Hilal at Pirtek Stadium is a huge bonus.
The home-ground advantage is such big thing in the Champions League, as you saw earlier on when we beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2-0 at home, which we needed to get through.
Even so, I would have liked the second game to be at Pirtek not the first. If we are victorious, our fans would have liked to see that and it’s certainly something they deserve.
It’s vital we get a good result tomorrow as it will be very tough when we go over there the following week.
We know Al-Hilal is a massive club, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in Asia in terms of supporters and financial stability.
The thing you want to do in the home leg is not let them score and give away cheap goals because everyone knows how important an away goal is in these kind of formats.
If we put a solid result in, even a scoreless draw is an amazing result, then when we go over there we just need one goal to be the champions.
It’s really ridiculous that you can play so well then cop an away goal which costs you a leg.
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But it’s very exciting. I don’t think a lot of people have grasped how hard it is to get to where we are. Adelaide were the last Australian team to do it and it’s getting tougher every year.
Who knows when we’re going to see an Australian side in the final again.
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