Sydney FC recruit Costa on song in dominant ACL2 win
Douglas Costa has marked his debut on Australian shores in style, playing a lead role in Sydney FC’s 5-0 Asian Champions League 2 win over Eastern SC.
The Brazilian international is arguably the most high-profile name to land in Australia since the days of Alessandro Del Piero.
And on first glance, the former Juventus winger looks set to live up to his glittering CV.
Costa got through 68 minutes in his Sydney bow on Thursday in front of a 4021-strong crowd at Jubilee Oval that featured a number of Brazilian flags.
The ex-Bayern Munich star had a hand in all of Sydney’s first three goals before being taken off by Sky Blues boss Ufuk Talay.
“I’m pleased with the result tonight. We knew that we’d have a lot of the ball and it was up to us to break them down,” Talay said.
“In the second half, we were even better once we got into our rhythm.
“I think the crowd will be very happy with what they saw from the whole team and it was a fantastic turnout for a Thursday night with an 8pm kick-off.”
The comfortable win over the Hong Kong side ensures Sydney go top of their group, which also includes Filipino side Kaya FC and J-League title contenders Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
While the scoreline suggests Sydney had things all their own way, they had to fight for the breakthrough and survived a handful of early scares from V?ctor Bertomeu.
Back-up goalkeeper Harrison Devenish-Meares, who was handed the gloves by Talay as Andrew Redmayne recovers from concussion, proved more than a match for Eastern’s Spanish import.
Eventually, Sydney got their breakthrough in the 33rd minute when Costa played a sumptuous ball through the heart of the Eastern defence.
An on-rushing Rhyan Grant got there first and found Sydney’s new Moroccan midfielder Anas Ouahim, who tucked in from close range.
Then from a short corner just before halftime, Costa whipped in a ball that found Grant in space and the Sydney skipper was on hand to finish.
Leading 2-0 at halftime, Sydney showed no indication of shutting up shop and it wasn’t long before Ouahim had a second.
Again, Costa played a role, threading a pass through heavy traffic that found Polish frontman Patryk Klimala, who flicked on for Ouahim to finish in the 55th minute.
Klimala missed a second-half penalty but that didn’t stop the Sky Blues from adding more to their tally, own goals from Daniel Almazan and Leung Chun Pong further strengthening Sydney’s victory.
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