The Western Sydney Wanderers coach, Tony Popovic, has dismissed Al-Hilal’s call for an investigation into the Asian Champions League final, saying it’s of no interest to the champions.
Al Hilal launched a stinging tirade against the refereeing in the two-leg final, claiming they were denied six penalties as Wanderers won 1-0 on aggregate. They claimed the integrity of the competition and the reputation of the Asian Football Confederation had been tarnished and called on the Asian Football Confederation to investigate.
Popovic was unfazed by it all on Wednesday, saying the Wanderers were the rightful Asian champions.
“When you lose, some teams and some clubs take it differently,” Popovic told Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast. “That’s been their approach and it’s of no interest to us.
“We’re not really concerned by their words at the moment. We’re the champions, we’ve earnt that. We played them over two matches, 180 minutes and we were the better team over the two games.”
After a 26,000km round trip to Riyadh for the second leg of the ACL final on the weekend, the Wanderers have plenty more on their plate with a testing travel schedule over the next fortnight.
They will fly to Wellington for Friday night’s A-League clash with Wellington Phoenix before crossing the Nullarbor for next weekend’s away fixture against Perth Glory.
“It’s not what we needed but in some ways it’s a good thing,” Popovic said of the approximately 32,000km the side will travel in the space of two weeks. “It’ll get our focus very quickly onto our bread and butter which is the A-League. Our success in the A-League is why we’re in the ACL. We certainly respect that competition and we want to get back on track as quickly as possible.”
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