Western Sydney Wanderers scored in the seventh minute and then poured in a barrage of goals in the final fifteen to destroy Guizhou Renhe and top Group H of the Champions League. The massive margin of victory was enough to lift the Wanderers to first place on goal difference, leaving Western Sydney clear by four goals of Kawasaki Frontale, though both were tied on twelve points. Frontale defeated Ulsan Hyundai in Japan, 3-1, eliminating the Koreans. The Wanderers now await the second place finisher from Group F, which could be any of the four clubs involved - FC Seoul, Central Coast Mariners, Beijing Guoan or Sanfrecce Hiroshima - depending on how Wednesday’s games turn out.
Western Sydney Wanderers rout Guizhou Renhe to top Group H
Four goals in thirteen second half minutes send the Wanderers into the Round of 16 as a top seed.
Shannon Cole opened scoring in the seventh minute giving Western Sydney something to work with at Parramatta Stadium. But it took until the 75th minute for the Wanderers to finally secure the game. Renhe, who were missing two players due to red card suspensions from Match Day 5, brought just three substitutes to Australia and used only two of them. Late in the game, fatigue set in, especially as Western Sydney brought in reinforcements. Labinot Haliti scored in the 75th and was followed by substitute Aaron Mooy’s 81st minute penalty. Another substitute, Shinji Ono, scored in the 85th minute before defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley finished off the extraordinary thirteen minutes with an 88th minute goal.
Meanwhile, the Wanderers are set to host the Mariners in the A-League semifinal round on Saturday April 26 at Pirtek Stadium. With a return trip to the Grand Final on the line and no Champions League fixture until Wednesday May 7, Western Sydney finally have a chance to focus on the domestic competition.
Scoring:
WSW Cole 7’
WSW Haliti 75’
WSW Mooy (pen) 81’
WSW Ono 85’
WSW Topor-Stanley 88’
Line-ups:
Western Sydney Wanderers: Covic; Cole, Topor-Stanley, Beauchamp, Mullen (Heffernan 83’), Golec; La Rocca (Mooy 79’), Trifiro; Haliti, Appiah, Juric (Ono 75’)
Unused substitutes: Tyson, Polenz, Santalab, Hersi
Guizhou Renhe: Sheng; Liu, Wan, Xiang, Yu; Fan, Yang Y., Yang H., Guo (Zhao 83’); Shen (Wu 76’), Qu
Unused substitutes: Li
See More:
