Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says he and his team will not get ahead of themselves after defeating Chinese powerhouse Shanghai SIPG at AAMI Park in their opening Asian Champions League clash on Wednesday.
The Victory secured the points courtesy of goals from Jai Ingham and Besart Berisha either side of a Wu Lei equaliser in a match that was played at a frenetic pace with countless momentum swings.
Despite the crucial opening win against an “excellent team”, Muscat remained realistic about what was to come in the tournament, pointing to Victory’s five remaining matches.
“We’ll enjoy tonight because I thought the group worked ever so hard tonight,” Muscat said.
“They put in a massive shift and when you work that hard, you come out on the right aide of the ledger more often than not.
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“I felt that with some pace on both sides, we’d be able to cause some problems and it was great build-up for the first goal and a great ball by Olly.
“We’ve had one game of six. If we see the calibre of player and the calibre of team we played tonight, we’re going to have to be consistently good to give ourselves a chance.
Despite Muscat’s realist tone, the manager was glowing in praise for his players.
“It (the win) was important, yes. It was important tonight, at home, to put on a good performance and take three points. But there’s a lot of football to play in this tournament.
“Make no mistake, we’ve beaten an excellent team tonight, a very, very good team. Right here and now, we’re proud of that.”
Victory’s next ACL match will be played on 2 March next week against Gamba Osaka in Japan.
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