Speaking to reporters after the game, Sydney coach Ufuk Talay said that it was difficult for his team to break down the home side.
“Key passes in crucial moments when we got into the final third let us down,” he said.
“With the two moments they had they scored two goals … Overall we had a lot of the ball but we were quite ineffective in managing it today.”
The Sailors came out of the break with the same hunger and were rewarded in the 53th minute as an immaculate ball from Diogo Costa found Thy and he rifled home from a tight angle to send the partisan home crowd into delirium.
Thy had the chance to make an impressive showing exceptional late on, as he latched on to a through ball, but his shot was well blocked by Devenish-Meares.
“We can be happy with the performance today at home,” said Thy.
“We know our strengths, we did pretty good on the counter-attacks, kept the ball (and) could have scored more in the end. Going to Sydney with a 2-0 (lead) is a good result but there’s still 90 minutes to go.”
The Singapore side had progressed to the semis after beating Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 on aggregate.
All seemed lost for the Sailors after they lost to the Japanese side in the first leg of the quarter-finals 6-1.
But the result was later chalked off and they were awarded a 3-0 win by the Asian footballing body, as Sanfreece had fielded a player who was supposed to be serving a three-match suspension.
The Sailors then registered a 1-1 draw in the second leg at home.
