Lion City Sailors custodian Victor Aznar aims to rise to the task again as Adelaide eye revenge

SINGAPORE – Just 90 seconds stood between Singapore side Lion City Sailors and a famous victory Down Under.

Tension was thick in the air as the Sailors clung on to a 1-0 lead, valiantly defending against relentless attacks from Australian outfit Adelaide United in their Asian Champions League Two (ACL2) clash at the Coopers Stadium on Oct 29.

A corner was swung in, the ball was flicked towards Adelaide defender Ryan Kitto just in front of goal, and 3,762 spectators inside the stadium rose to their feet in expectation. But with a flick of a limb, Sailors’ Brazilian goalkeeper Victor Aznar repelled the effort at point-blank range, before defender Bailey Wright hooked the ball clear from danger.

Just moments later, Lennart Thy finished at the other end as the Sailors capped off a historic night, becoming the first Singaporean club to beat an A-League team on Australian soil.

Aznar and his teammates will be looking to repeat their heroics when they host Adelaide in the return tie at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Nov 5. Another victory will put the Singapore side on the brink of the knockout stages.

After three matches, the Sailors are top of Group F with seven points, with Adelaide a point behind. BG Pathum United of Thailand are third on four points and Hong Kong’s Tai Po are bottom with no points. The top two teams advance to the round of 16.

For 24-year-old Aznar – who described the stoppage-time save as the “kind of moments (players) live and train for” – it was the fifth clean sheet in seven Sailors matches since he arrived from Spanish second-tier side Cadiz CF on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee in August.

But behind the solid start was a more uncertain beginning in Singapore off the pitch for the 1.92m custodian.

Aznar was a signing personally sought by Sailors’ then Spanish coach Jesus Casas, who convinced him to make the move from Europe to Singapore, a country that the Sao Paulo native admitted that he had never heard anything of.

But on Sept 1, just five days before the Singapore Premier League (SPL) season curtain-raiser against Tampines Rovers in the Community Shield, Casas was sacked.

“I met Jesus (Casas), and he told me a lot about the city, about the team and how I can play here (at Sailors) without pressure,” Aznar explained.

“He said it will be different playing here than playing in Spain... and the second (reason) I wanted to come is because Jesus did everything to bring me here, and I trust him and I said ‘okay he wants me to come here, I will come’.”

Aznar is adamant, though, that the rocky start did not faze him.

“These things can happen in football,” he said, crediting teammates such as compatriot Hugo Gomes, Portuguese defender Diogo Costa and Portugal-born Jorge Karseladze for helping him settle down in Singapore.

“I know how football is. In the last year in Cadiz, things were not so good, and they changed (coaches) four times. The first coach loved me, the second one put me on the bench... these things can happen. When Jesus left, I wrote to him and wished good luck to him... These things don’t change what I can do on the pitch.”

Aznar devoted much of his sporting pursuits as a youth to judo – about 11 years – but later focused on football. While he started off as a winger, he found his calling as a goalkeeper and started his career in the academy of Brazilian giants Corinthians before moving across the Atlantic to Italy with Hellas Verona’s youth set-up.

He then joined Cadiz, where he made over 100 appearances for the club’s B and first teams, including 36 in La Liga 2. He was also named on the Cadiz first-team bench on five occasions during the 2023-24 La Liga season.

With the Sailors – who are involved in four competitions, the SPL, Singapore Cup, ACL2 and the ASEAN Club Championship – he aims to win “all the titles”.

Ahead of the rematch with Adelaide, Sailors coach Mark Jackson said he looks at his goalkeeping department as a team. Praising the group’s competitiveness, he added that pressure from the other two custodians – Croat Ivan Susak and Singaporean Adib Nur Hakim – has helped Aznar rise to the challenge.

“Victor’s performances have shown that he’s got huge potential as a goalkeeper. Obviously, that’s why the club brought him in as well, and he’s really rising to the challenge of being pushed by the other two goalkeepers,” said Jackson.

“It gives me a big headache as a head coach, and I welcome those headaches. I’m really pleased with Victor’s performances in the ACL2 games as well, so long may that continue.”

The 49-year-old Englishman added: “I thought that (the win in Adelaide) was a statement when we beat them on their own patch. That was a marker in the sand for us because there were many positive points from a technical, tactical point of view and also a physical point of view and where we want to go.

“Backing that up with another result against Adelaide, a strong team, would just reinforce what we’re trying to do here.”

Adelaide goalkeeper Joshua Smits is backing his side to bounce back against the Sailors.

The Dutch goalkeeper said at the pre-match press conference on the eve of the game: “I think they (Sailors) have a great team, (with) experienced players and players who can win a game.

“We have a plan. And I think we also had some good moments in the (first) game, so we are quite confident as well.”

Singapore’s other representatives in the competition, Tampines Rovers, will be looking to earn their first points of what has been a dismal ACL2 campaign thus far.

After three defeats in as many matches, including a nightmare 5-1 loss to Cambodia’s PKR Svay Rieng at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Oct 29, the Stags will travel to the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Phnom Penh looking to salvage some pride in the return match.

The Stags are bottom of Group G, four points behind Svay Rieng and China’s Shanghai Shenhua, who are second and third respectively. Machida Zelvia of Japan are top with nine points.