Dreamy Sailors In Uncharted Waters

Treble-chasers are first S'pore side to reach Asian final after ousting Sydney in ACL Two

- Melvyn Teoh

Lion City Sailors coach Aleksandar Rankovic is in dreamland and does not want to be woken up, as his side made history on April 16, becoming the first football team from Singapore to reach the final of a continental competition.

Despite a 1-0 loss to hosts Sydney FC in the second leg of their Asian Champions League Two semi-final in front of 10,588 spectators at the Sydney Football Stadium, the Sailors prevailed 2-1 on aggregate.

They will meet Sharjah FC of the United Arab Emirates in the May 18 final, which is scheduled to be held in Singapore. Sharjah had beaten Saudi Arabia's Al-Taawoun 2-0 on April 15 to win their semi-final 2-1 on aggregate.

"I said yesterday that I was still waiting for somebody to wake me up. But, now, honestly, I don't want to be awake. I want to keep dreaming and let's hope we can go all the way," said Rankovic on their trail-blazing run.

"We knew that we were going to suffer a lot of pressure and we had to put a lot of bodies in front of the goal, and we did a good job."

Sailors defender Bailey Wright, who has 29 caps for Australia, called their achievement "pretty amazing", adding: "When we started this journey, none of us really expected us to be here, and here we are.