Canberra Croatia dream of making magic at the 2023 Australia Cup

The club reached the Australia Cup round of 32 with their 4-2 victory over 'Canberra Classico' rivals Olympic in the Federation Cup final on Saturday night.

It's the 19th time Canberra Croatia has won the silverware, but this was an upset of sorts after they were beaten by Olympic just over two weeks ago in the National Premier League.

While Olympic are comfortably atop the NPL ladder, it's not been a strong season for Canberra Croatia, currently sitting sixth.

But an Australia Cup round of 32 berth might be just what the doctor ordered to get their year back on track according to Canberra Croatia coach Dean Ugrinic.

And they're daring to dream about how far they can go in the knockout tournament where they will face the nation's best clubs, including A-League teams.

"This is an extremely important win," Ugrinic told The Canberra Times.

"It's been a disappointing campaign for us in the league, but the boys played exceptionally well.

"The first half was just sensational. It's going to give us renewed confidence."

Sydney United 58 made the last Australia Cup final despite an average NPL season, and Canberra Croatia will be aiming to follow the same path, with some shock upsets along the way.

It's those sort of storylines that inspire football fans to use the phrase: 'The magic of the Cup'.

"You'd like to go as far as you can," Ugrinic said. "We'll see what transpires in the draw.

"You've got to aim high. You don't play to make up the numbers. I'd like to think we'll be very competitive."

Francisco Greco, Lukman Ahmed-Shaibu and Stephen Domenici got Canberra Croatia off to a flying start in the Federation Cup final.

Olympic's Luca Florez and Max Mellick made for a thrilling second half, even when they went down to 10 men after Nathan Megic earned his second yellow.

But Daniel Barac sealed Canberra Croatia's win with his injury-time strike.

"It's very hard to come back down 3-nil, but I thought my boys showed a lot of character," Olympic coach Paul Macor said.

"They had a really good effort."

The match was soured only by Ahmed-Shaibu who made allegations of racist slurs being used towards him.

The incident is yet to be formally reported to Capital Football by his club, but it prompted the sporting body to reiterate its stance against racism.

Canberra Croatia 4 (Greco 21', Ahmed-Shaibu 24', Domenici 31' (p), Barac 90+1') bt Canberra Olympic 2 (Florez 52', Mellick 86')

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