GALEKOVIC AMAZED BY WESTERN SYDNEY PROGRESS

Former finalist Eugene Galekovic has hailed Western Sydney Wanderers’ achievement of becoming only the second Australian side to reach the AFC Champions League final ahead of Saturday’s first leg, although the veteran goalkeeper is amazed by the speed in which the A-League’s newest side have followed up Adelaide United’s historic 2008 achievement.

Australia international Galekovic was a virtual ever-present in the Adelaide side which became the first Australian club to reach the AFC Champions League final in 2008, only for the Reds to eventually lose 5-0 on aggregate to Japan’s Gamba Osaka.

And despite Western Sydney only beginning their third A-League campaign earlier this month having been founded in April 2012 ahead of the 2012/13 domestic campaign, Tony Popovic’s continental debutants will play Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in this year’s AFC Champions League final, with the first leg taking place at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday.

“What they have done is fantastic. I honestly thought that no one was going to achieve what we did for a long time,” said Galekovic, who missed the second leg of the 2008 final due to suspension.

“But credit to Western Sydney for doing it six years on as they have played really well, especially in their quarter-final against the Chinese team when no one expected them to get through and they did. I think they now have a great chance in the final.

“The memories from 2008 are great. No one expected us to do any good. I think if we got past the group stage back then we would have achieved our expectations as only one team went through.”

Like Adelaide, who reached the 2008 final with Galekovic having kept an impressive six clean sheets in 10 games, Western Sydney have also built their continental success on a solid defensive record with Popovic’s side having won their last five AFC Champions League games at home without conceding a goal.

“Defensively we were very strong with a good defensive structure and we stuck by that, and also, when we had an opportunity we would put that away and that was part of our game,” added Galekovic, who also helped Adelaide reach the quarter-finals in 2012.

“I see a similar way in which Western Sydney have gone about it with a good defensive structure as they don’t concede too many.”

But unlike 2008 when Adelaide travelled to Japan for the first leg and lost 3-0 to Gamba, Western Sydney will have home advantage at the weekend before travelling to the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh for the return fixture a week later.

“We knew the preparations for the final were going to be big, but the leg in Japan didn’t go too well,” said Galekovic, who had joined Adelaide from Melbourne Victory midway through the 2007/08 A-League campaign.

“If you looked at all the other games we played, we were very disciplined and we didn’t give away too much. But against Gamba, their three goals came from our mistakes which we didn’t do in the group stage, quarters or semis, and that was the disappointing thing.

“We were a very experienced team and I don’t think we let the occasion get to us. I am not sure what it was, but I remember them punishing the mistakes we made, and in the end we let it slip in the first leg.”