Defending A-League champion Sydney FC began its Sydney Festival of Football with a brave 5-3 loss to Greece side AEK Athens at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
Alex Brosque recently signed a new contract to stay with the Sky Blues, and he celebrated in style with two goals in the encounter.
Such is the structure of the tournament, Athens receive eight points (three for the win, and one for each goal) for the result, while Sydney receive three.
Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka said the game was a great spectacle for the Harbour City fans.
“I think eight goals is great entertainment for the spectators. For us it was a big but bitter lesson,” Lavicka said.
“Especially in defence because (our) opponent played very well. In attack they are a very good quality team. We made several mistakes and good quality team, as AEK are, punished every Sydney FC mistake.”
“We scored three goals is pretty positive but we can-t be satisfied with the performance today. We are happy we can play against this opponent and I believe we will improve next time, we will play better.”
AEK took the lead in the 30th minute, but Brosque was quick to level the scores two minutes later through a penalty.
The visitors responded not long after in the 37th minute, and they took the lead into the main break.
Brosque was the recipient of a slip up from Athens keeper Ioannis Arampatzis early in the second half, who fell over while in control of the ball, gifting the Sky Blues star an easy leveller.
From then on, though, it was all AEK as Nikos Lyberopulos (60′), Ignacio Scocco (74-) and Pantelis Kafes (77′) slammed on goals to put the contest to rest.
A late Ibrahima Thiam goal brought the margin back to two goals, in what finished an eight-goal match, and a valuable hit out for the Sky Blues.
