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| AFC Champions League 2009 |
Shenhua crushed 10-man Singapore Armed Forces 4-1 in their Group G opener at Hongkou Stadium although three of their goals only arrived in the final 17 minutes.
John Wilkinson scored for the visitors to cancel out an early penalty by Argentine striker Hernan Barcos but Yu Tao restored Shenhua’s lead and Yin Xifu made it 3-1 before Barcos rounded out the scoring with his second of the night.
“We created a lot of goal-scoring opportunities today but took only a few of them. However the result looked good,” said Jia.
“I said they (SAF) are not weak and they proved it today as we had to fight hard for our victory.
“I believe we have so much to learn and think about after this game. It is not time to look forward to the next game because we first have to gain an insight into our performance tonight.
“It was our first match in this year’s AFC Champions League, so it was understandable that some players ran out of stamina and made mistakes because of nervousness.
“Every game is difficult in the continental tournament. My players did their best today and we are determined to do the same in our upcoming matches.”
Goal scoring hero Yu Tao felt that the SAF equaliser resulted from a loss in concentration by his Shenhua team-mates.
“It was a result of complacency and the equaliser made the match difficult for us,” he said.
“Fortunately, we came back in the critical moment and I was lucky to score the goal.”
SAF coach Richard Bok felt that credit was due to his players who battled for a result despite being a man down for more than two thirds of the game following the 24th minute dismissal of Hafiz Osman for handling a shot by Barcos that was headed into the net.
“This was our first time playing at this level against a big team. We did well and we were organised defensively,” said Bok.
“I hope we can play better against Shanghai Shenhua at home. I hope we can play with 11 men and give a better fight.”
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