Adelaide United coach Guillermo Amor has lamented his side’s missed opportunities after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Shandong Luneng and thus failing to qualify for the AFC Champions League.
Despite a last-ditch fight back from the Reds following Sergio Cirio’s 89th minute header, first-half goals from Shandong’s Yang Xu and Diego Tardelli were enough to progress to Asia’s premier club competition.
Marcelo Carrusca also missed a penalty with eight minutes remaining, prior to Cirio’s goal with the Spaniard further squandering a glorious chance to equalise deep in stoppage time.
POPULAR ARTICLES
Ritchie Hinton: “I challenge anyone to turn down China money”
Shandong boss Mano Menezes relieved to progress to Champions League group stage
Adelaide United unable to match Shandong Luneng’s palpable brilliance
Consequently, Amor was disappointed not to have qualified for the group stages, but praised his team’s second-half display.
“This game is a final and the important thing is the result and win the game. Today we had our opportunities,” Amor said in the post-match press conference.
“For us it’s about the result and it’s a difficult moment but the level of our players for me was fantastic.
“The second-half we played well, the first was different.”
Amor admits the Reds could have won the match if they managed to send the game into extra time given their superior fitness over the Chinese outfit since they are still in preseason.
“For us in this moment it would have been better to play [in extra-time], for them [Shandong] no,” Amor confessed.
“If it was 2-2 with extra-time normal the game is for us, but the ball didn’t want to go in that’s how it finished.”
The Spanish boss further believes the number of stoppages in the game did affect proceedings and questioned whether all the interruptions added up to six minutes.
“The referee decides to stop the game or not stop the game… We lost a lot of time.”
“Although there was six minutes I don’t know if all the stoppages added up to the six minutes.”
Speaking in the mixed zone, Argentine midfielder Carrusca was apologetic, stating his performance was not up to standard after hitting the crossbar from a spot-kick.
“We didn’t have a great night especially me. We couldn’t achieve this important moment,” the 32-year-old said.
“I took the responsibility and didn’t have luck and I didn’t shoot well.”
Sergio van Dijk, whose future at the Reds depended on reaching the ACL, will now have to search for a new club.
“My search for a new club continues I will be calling my agent after I go home and see where I’m heading,” van Dijk said.
“Unfortunately I’m standing here now without a contract for a year at Adelaide and looking for something else. It was good to be here again.
“As soon as possible I’m trying to leave not because I don’t want to stay here, but time is money and I have to find a new club.
“From here I’ll move into Asia somewhere at the moment I don’t know exactly where.”
Adelaide will have to quickly recover from their defeat, before travelling to Gosford to face the Central Coast Mariners on Sunday.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
