Sydney FC came close to toppling the biggest club in Asia on Wednesday night before a letting a two-goal lead slip in agonising circumstances at Aussie Stadium.

The Blues drew 2-2 with J-League champions Urawa Red Diamonds - a club dubbed the Manchester United of Japanese football - in just their second Asian Champions League assignment.

But they were left to rue the most unfortunate of goalkeeping blunders when Clint Bolton fumbled in the six-yard box to present Reds striker Yuchiro Nagai with the easiest of equalisers early in the second half.

The Blues had raced to a 2-0 lead after David Carney stunned the visitors with the opening goal inside the first minute and Ufuk Talay slotted home a penalty - won by Carney - in the 22nd.

Urawa pegged one back on the half hour through Robson Ponte before Bolton - diving away from goal to claim a Ponte cross - mishandled the ball as he fell to ground to gift Nagai the equaliser in the 54th minute.

Sydney, nevertheless, impressed against their much-vaunted opponent, and after an away win over Shanghai Shenhua and draw against the group favourites, remain well-placed in group E for a shot at the quarter-finals with four rounds remaining.

The Blues play their next two games against Indonesia's Persik Kediri - who upset Shanghai 1-0 on Wednesday - and after another impressive performance on Wednesday night will be hoping to claim maximum points to strengthen their chance of topping the group.

The Red Diamonds, with an operational budget of $65 million per year, are expected to challenge for the ACL title this year.

But despite having nine internationals in their starting 11, they appeared shellshocked after Carney's opener after 56 seconds silenced the mass of red-shirt Urawa supporters behind the visitors goal.

Mark Milligan fed a perfect through ball for Carney, who sliced through the heart of the Reds defence to calmly slot home the quickest goal in Sydney FC history with his left boot.

It was a dream start.

And things only got better when Carney - who along with Alex Brosque was causing nightmares for the Reds back four - went down in the box under pressure from Tulio and Keisuke Tsuboi.

Talay did the rest with his second goal of the campaign, and Sydney, just like they had done against Shanghai in China a fortnight ago, were up 2-0 inside the opening 25 minutes.

Urawa's response, though, came quick.

Attacking midfielder Ponte's sweetly stuck shot from outside the box beat Bolton and, with the tide going the Diamonds way, Nagai scored the perfect poachers goal nine minutes after halftime to leave Bolton red-faced.

A gutted Bolton was philosophical about his error which ultimately cost Sydney two points.

"It was one of those unfortunate things, but if it's the worse thing that happens to me this week I'll be a happy man," said Bolton.

"It's not the first time its happened and certainly won't be the last.

"It's disappointing because we put in a lot of work and I thought we had them on the ropes, but a couple of soft goals let them back in.

"But then again if someone told us we get a draw before the game I think we would have been happy.

"Like I said, worse things have happened, so I'll move on."

Sydney coach Branko Culina, who said he was both "pleased and disappointed" with the result, backed his goalkeeper to bounce back after an off night.

"That was the best goalkeeper (playing) in Australia, and unfortunately it was just one of those days for him and it cost us," said Culina, who remained undefeated in his first two games in charge of Sydney.

"I guess he's entitled to a bad day, and unfortunately for us it was tonight.

"Look he'll bounce back, he's a quality goalkeeper, and there's many other times that he's saved us. You can't be too disappointed, although it would have been nice if he didn't have such a night off."

Sydney have two injury concerns for their trip to Indonesia on April 11 with both midfielder Robbie Middleby and forward David Zdrillic suffering hamstring injuries in the first half.

Urawa coach Holger Osieck said he wasn't surprised by Sydney's performance.

"I expected them to be a tough opponent to play and I got the proof that my expectation was right," said the German.

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