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Bailey Wright knows a thing or two about defensive resilience. Capped 29 times by the Socceroos, the Melbourne-born defender played an important cameo role in one of Australian football’s most significant victories – the 1-0 win over Denmark in the final group game at the Qatar World Cup which sealed progression to the last 16.
Australia had to withstand a late barrage that night in al-Wakrah, and Wright, who Graham Arnold deployed off the bench with 15 minutes to go, was at the very heart of it.
When his country has called, Wright has delivered – not just in Qatar but also on the road to the 2022 tournament in the crucial playoff wins against UAE and Peru. But over the next two weeks, he’ll be thrust into an unfamiliar role – defending against the interests of Australian football.
Wright, 32, now calls Singapore home, after a surprise move to Lion City Sailors, the city-state’s biggest club, in 2023. The ambitious club, owned by Singaporean billionaire Forrest Li, is all that stands between Sydney FC and a shot at continental glory, with the winner of their AFC Champions League Two semi-final to host the final next month against either Sharjah FC from the UAE, or Saudi Arabian side Al Taawoun.
“No mixed emotions at all,” Wright says when asked about coming up against an Australian club. “It’s exciting to come back to Australia and actually play in an international game. It’s a semi-final against an A-League club that I’ve never actually played against before in a competitive game. So I’m excited, no mixed emotions at all, completely want my team to win and keep achieving history.”
Truth be told, there’s more than a slice of luck around Lion City’s appearance at this stage of the competition. After Sanfrecce Hiroshima routed Lion City 6-1 in the first leg of their quarter-final last month, it was discovered that new signing, Valère Germain, who joined only a week earlier from Macarthur, should instead have been serving a three-game ban dating back to Macarthur’s appearance in the AFC Cup last season.
Someone at Lion City quickly realised, and the result of the game was overturned, with Lion City handed a 3-0 win by default. A famous 1-1 draw in the second leg, calling upon some of that defensive resilience Wright knows so well, has them eyeing a repeat against Sydney FC.
It was a performance that should sound a warning to Sydney FC as they jet off for the steamy climes of Singapore for the first leg of their semi-final tie this week. With the weather expected to top 32C and a stifling humidity of up to 80%, a trip to Singapore is one that tests even the best teams. Throw in playing on a synthetic pitch at the compact Jalan Besar Stadium, and it’s a trip that has undone plenty of teams before.
Lion City knocked off Korean powerhouse Jeonbuk Hyundai 2-0 in 2023, while Chinese side Zhejiang also fell victim in this year’s Asian Champions League Two, as did Thai sides Port FC and Muangthong United.
Sydney will know how challenging playing in southeast Asia can be, having only just survived suffocating conditions in Thailand in February, when they needed extra-time to dispatch Bangkok United.
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Wright is cognisant of how important home advantage can be, and will be hoping not just the conditions, but also the crowd make it as hostile as possible for Sydney FC.
“We’d like to think that for teams coming to Singapore, we’ve made it a difficult place to come,” Wright said. “We’ve had some really good results in Singapore. We like playing at home, we get good support behind us and obviously it’s always warm here, no matter what. So it does take time to get used to.
“I think everyone has to be confident and make the most of their home advantage, and I feel like that’s done us a big favour so far in this competition already, and will continue to do so. We’re expecting a good following again, probably one of our biggest crowds. I’m sure they’ll get fully behind us and support us, because it certainly is one of the biggest club games that a Singaporean club has ever played in here in Singapore.”
While they’ll need to be at their defensive best to get past a Sydney side featuring Douglas Costa, Joe Lolley, Adrian Segecic and Patryk Klimala, to dismiss Lion City as just a defensive side would be doing them a disservice. This is a side with serious threats going the other way in the form of former St Pauli and PEC Zwolle striker Lennart Thy, former PSV and Netherlands international Bart Ramselaar and former Club Brugge and Standard Liège winger Maxime Lestienne.
Even against Hiroshima in the second leg when the J-League side were still expected to overturn the 0-3 deficit, it was Lion City that took the lead courtesy of a rapid counter attack and class finish from Thy. Sydney will discount them at their peril.
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