Prior to the final, Sharjah had expressed reservations about the decider being hosted at the Jalan Besar Stadium, claiming that it “does not meet the aspirations of the fans and stakeholders”.
The 55,000-seater National Stadium was ruled out as a venue as it had been booked well in advance for Lady Gaga’s Lion City Mayhem concerts on May 18, 19, 21 and 24.
This meant that the final was played at Bishan Stadium with improvements undertaken such as the building of three new stands to increase its capacity by more than three times to accommodate about 10,000 spectators.
The Sailors booked their place in the final after beating Australia’s Sydney FC 2-1 over two legs. In the quarters, the Singaporean side beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima 4-1 on aggregate.
All seemed lost for the Sailors after they lost to the Japanese giants 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 Sanfrecce 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.
Previously known as the AFC Cup, the ACL2 is the second-tier Asian club football tournament with a revamped format.
The last time a Singapore side reached the knockout stages of an AFC club competition was in 2018, when Home United, as the Sailors were previously known, got as far as the inter-zone semi-finals in the 2018 edition of the AFC Cup.
“The number one lesson is that you should never stop dreaming and believing,” Rankovic said of his side, who had been outsiders to make it this far.
“Every game we played in this campaign, we were the underdog … This year showed me that if you believe it, and, of course, if you have the football players I have, you can go so far.”
