Late Hao Junmin rocket breaks Sydney’s hearts as Shandong Luneng advance to AFC Champions League quarter-finals
Substitute scores a last-minute winner to end Australian side’s interest in the competition after a see-saw match that saw Shangdong miss a penalty and Sydney receive a red card
Substitute Hao Junmin’s last-minute rocket broke Sydney FC’s hearts and put China’s Shandong Luneng into the AFC Champions League quarter-finals after a sensational last-16 second leg on Wednesday.
It took a great goal to beat us... all I can say is, these things happen in football
Goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic’s late penalty save – after he also stopped a spot-kick in the first leg – seemed to have earned 10-man Sydney their first appearance in Asia’s last eight.
But with the scores at 2-1 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate after last week’s 1-1 draw, Hao’s long-range shot swerved past Janjetovic and into the top corner, stunning the Sydney crowd.
It was enough to take Mano Menezes’s Shandong into the quarter-finals for the first time in 11 years. Despite the 3-3 aggregate score, they squeezed through on the away goals rule.
“There’s a lot of disappointments in football and there’s a lot of happy times – this is an extremely disappointing time for the players,” an emotional Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said afterwards.
“It took a great goal to beat us... all I can say is, these things happen in football,” he added.
Sydney got off to a dream start when with less than two minutes gone, midfielder Brandon O’Neill’s low free kick somehow ended up in the net for what was his first goal for his club.