Despite failing to get the job done at home, there is still an air of optimism swirling around the Melbourne Victory dressing room.
The A-League side hosted the first leg of their Asian Champions League round of 16 tie against reigning K-League champions Jeonbuk Motors, but could only manage a stalemate after Brazilian Leonardo salvaged a draw for the away side via stunning free kick. Marksman Besart Berisha had given Victory the best possible start with a headed goal after just four minutes.
Level pegging and an away goal against their name leaves Victory with it all to do in South Korea next Tuesday, but after dominating large portions of the match at AAMI Park, confidence remains high the job can still be done.
Coach Kevin Muscat believes Victory should have won on the night but simply lacked cutting edge.
“The tie’s still wide open, without a doubt,” Muscat said.
“We can take confidence from the amount of chances we created tonight and let’s be honest, we should have won the game.
ACL – What We Learned – Melbourne Victory 1 Jeonbuk Motors 1
“We limited them to very little sightings on our goal … I thought all in all, we were the better team tonight.
“We created enough sightings on goal to trouble the keeper a lot more than we did. I’ll take confidence from that and also take confidence from the fact that we’ve scored in every one of our away trips so far in this competition.
“We’ll recover well and head across there and put them under some pressure … I dare say they’ll have a lot more to lose than us.”
Leonardo’s brilliant strike came about after a Mattieu Delpierre foul left Han Kyo Won grounded on the edge of the penalty area. Referee Alireza Faghani awarded a free kick that was beautifully put away by the former AEK Athens attacker, though the fans – and indeed the manager and players – believed the decision was dubious.
“The players’ reaction said it all. It seemed to be soft but it was given in the end and it was a world class strike.
“We’d seen enough to know that he’s capable of that … the free kick was a little bit soft, hopefully we get a few of those away from home.
“They’re a good team but like I said, we’ll take confidence from the openings we created tonight.
“There’s been games we’ve won three or 4-0 and we created nowhere near as many chances as we did tonight.”
The second leg will be played at the Gwangju World Cup Stadium on 24 May.
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