Coach Tony Popovic says his Western Sydney Wanderers team is close to something special after edging out Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal 1-0 in the AFC Champions League final first leg.

The Wanderers, in only their third season, will attempt to become the first Australian side to win the Asian showpiece in the return leg at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh next Saturday.

Striker Tomi Juric was Western Sydney's hero in Saturday's first leg at Parramatta Stadium, scoring the winner seven minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute.

Popovic, who has crafted the Wanderers into Asian champion contenders after taking his team to two consecutive A-League finals, said his team is on the cusp of a great achievement.

"We're halfway towards achieving something very special. We have set the platform now but the job's not done," he said after Saturday's victory before a 20,000 home record crowd in Sydney.

"We're looking forward to another tough game and a big crowd.

"The stadium will be full, supporting their team and we expect that.

"But we have played tough matches and we have a lot of experience from playing against Guangzhou Evergrande and FC Seoul and we can draw on that experience."

The Wanderers are the standard bearers for Australian football in Asia and are attempting to go one better than Adelaide United, who lost the two-leg AFC Champions League final to Japan's Gamba Osaka in 2008.

"You always want to win the home leg, the first leg, if it's possible," Popovic said.

"We have shown we can score away from home and this result has filled us with confidence.

"We have to recover well and we're in for a tough battle next week, but they're (Al Hilal) going home knowing they're up against a very tough opponent who can win the title over there."

Popovic reserved special praise for 23-year-old Juric, whose introduction changed the match for Wanderers after they had absorbed enormous pressure from the Saudis in the first half.

"His impact was fantastic. It's been seven weeks since he played," he said.

"Tomi scored a fantastic goal, it was a great overlap and a real striker's finish. It's just a shame he didn't get that second one.

"In any game in the world that was a great goal and I'm very proud of him."

Juric troubled the Al Hilal defence and came close to giving his team a two-goal buffer only for his shot to come off the post, with goalkeeper Abdullah Al Sdairy well beaten.

"It definitely was one of my biggest goals. We were under the pump a bit in the first half and when I came on I tried to hold the ball up as much as I could up front and try to release a bit of pressure for us at the back," Juric said.

"These things happen in football (hitting the post), you get some and you don't get some. I was fortunate enough to score the first one but a bit unlucky with the second one."

Romanian coach Laurentiu Reghecampf is confident his twice Asian club champions Al Hilal will fight back and win the trophy at home next weekend.

"The fact is we lost the game and I'm not happy about that," he said.

"I'm sure in the next game we are going to win, we are going to try to do that and we will do our best.

"We know the Sydney team better now and I hope we can have the luck and score two or three goals.

"In the next game it will be very difficult for Sydney. The fans, 65,000 people, are waiting for us and for them (Wanderers)."