Melbourne Victory caretaker coach Mehmet Durakovic remains confident in his side’s ability to qualify from the group stage of the AFC Champions League after the A-League club’s 1-1 draw with Tianjin Teda on Tuesday.
Melbourne came from a goal down against last year’s Chinese Super League runners-up and could have won the game after Tianjin went down to 10 men with 15 minutes left.
Durakovic felt his side had missed their chance to win the game, but still believes that despite trailing second-placed Jeju United by five points with three matches to go, Melbourne can get through to the Round of 16.
“I am disappointed that we didn’t get the three points,” he said. “We played better than Tianjin and we had chances to win.”
“We had two or three more chances. Unfortunately, we failed convert any of them.”
“We are still bullish on qualification. We still have chances.”
Tianjin coach Arie Haan agreed that his side were fortunate to escape with a point after the loss of captain Marco Zoric.
“We are satisfied with the result particularly after Zoric was sent off,” said Haan. “But we are not satisfied with the process.”
“It was a difficult match. We had a chance to score another goal in the first half but we missed it.”
“We lacked experience in dealing with physically stronger rivals.”
