Scottish Premiership giants Glasgow Celtic succumbed to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Sydney FC in Thursday’s Sydney Super Cup opener at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney. The Sky Blues, who are currently 6th in the 12-team A-League Men table, managed to keep up with their more illustrious opponents and snatch themselves a famous win, spoiling the homecoming of Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou in the process.
Ange, who had managed the likes of Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory and the Australia national team, was given an award prior to kick-off by Football Australia in recognition of his contributions toward football within the continent and beyond, with the Australian football federation inducting him into their Hall of Fame.
With the pleasantries done and dusted, the opening match of this year’s Sydney Super Cup was well underway. Ange’s Celtic side had only four men serving World Cup duty in Qatar this month, thus allowing the manager to deploy a strong lineup against Steve Corica’s inconsistent Sydney side. The usual suspects such as Carl Starfelt, Liel Abada, Anthony Ralston, James Forrest and Kyogo Furuhashi were present in the starting lineup, while the bench shows the testament of the Bhoys’ strength in depth as Reo Hatate, Jota, and Sead Haksabanovic were present.
It was end-to-end action throughout the opening 20 minutes and Celtic’s quality shined through in the 23rd, with an Abada shot being deflected into the Sydney goal by Furuhashi for the opener.
Celtic’s lead did not last long and three minutes later Sydney managed to drew level. Slovak international Robert Mak, who started his career in the Manchester City academy, managed to outrun Celtic defender Stephen Walsh before beating the Bhoys’ goalie Benjamin Siegrist in a one-on-one situation.
With their number one goalie Andrew Redmayne off to Qatar, Sydney had to call upon the talents of Thomas Heward-Belle in between the sticks and the Sky Blues’ third-choice goalkeeper put up a brave performance in between the sticks with a series of saves that kept the scoreline at 1-1 throughout the reminder of the first half.
Playing in front of Heward-Belle were Aaron Gurd and Adrian Vlastelica, who were not exactly Sydney’s first-choice center-backs. Gurd was a Sydney academy graduate playing on a scholarship contract, while Vlastelica was part of the Sydney United 58 side that made it all the way into the 2022 Australia Cup final, captaining them as they lost the final 2-0 at the hands of Macarthur FC prior to being snapped up by Sydney as an injury replacement for captain Alex Wilkinson.
Despite the duo being so down in the Sydney defensive pecking order, both Gurd and Vlastelica put up a performance of a lifetime as they kept the likes of Furuhashi, Abada, Forrest, and Ralston at bay. Even with the introduction of Hatate, Jota, and Haksabanovic during half-time, the Sydney defense remained undeterred before the Sky Blues sucker-punched Celtic into submission in the 60th minute.
Against the run of play, Max Burgess managed to curl in Sydney’s second goal beyond Siegrist’s reaches, giving the Sky Blues the slender lead that they would never relinquish as they secured a historic victory.
The Sydney Super Cup continues on Sunday as Celtic takes on Everton at the Stadium Australia, before the Toffees travel to the CommBank Stadium to take on the Western Sydney Wanderers next Wednesday.