One scored the decisive goal, the other made some Herculean saves, together Tomi Juric and Ante Covic emphasised what an almighty team effort it took to deliver an unprecedented AFC Champions League crown.
The Wanderers arrived home last night and were greeted by a sea of Red and Black supporters as the magnitude of their achievement continues to sink in.
Both striker and goalkeeper were were thrilled to be able to share their achievement with Wanderers fans at a packed Sydney Airport and were quick to acknowledge the role they played in their success.
“This is phenomenal,” beamed Covic. “First the title, to be crowned Champions of Asia for this club.
“No one would’ve given us a shot in hell but we believed. We got there.
“To come home to something like this. It’s never been seen before in Australian football.
“They’ve (the supporters) have done the club proud for two years and we get to play in front of these guys every week so it’s absolutely awesome.”
Juric was similarly appreciative of the immense backing Western Sydney received throughout their AFC Champions League campaign.
The 23-year-old was again deployed as a substitute in the 0-0 result in Saudi Arabia which gave the Wanderers the win on aggregate courtesy of his goal on home soil.
While he’s yet to fully come to terms with the enormity of the result he pointed out that the squad will quickly need to turn their attention to domestic action.
“It was amazing,” said Juric. “To come home to that after such a tough game was incredible.
“I’m still just trying to soak up what’s happened. On the plane ride home I couldn’t sleep a bit, cause I’ve just been trying to understand exactly what happened.
“We’ll get tomorrow off to reflect on what’s happened the past couple of days and we’ll try get focused for the Wellington game as soon as possible.”
