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Positives for Perth Glory despite Asian Champions League defeat against Shanghai Shenhua
The West Australian outfit showed plenty of fight with a young side that hadn't played competitively for months
Perth Glory went down 2-1 against Shanghai Shenhua on Wednesday night as they got their Asian Champions League campaign going again in Qatar.
The A-League club's first group game was way back in February when they lost 1-0 against Tokyo FC before the coronavirus pandemic halted the continental competition.
Now boasting a new coach in the form of Richard Garcia and nearly three months after their last A-League game, Glory were always going to take time to find their feet against Shenhua.
The Chinese Super League outfit, who had won three of their last four games, started the clash brightly and took a 2-0 lead into half-time courtesy of goals from Peng Xinli and Yu Hanchao.
Glory struggled to get a grip on the match in the first 45 minutes with Tando Velaphi guilty of some poor goalkeeping for Shenhua's second goal just before the break.
Glory showed more promise in the second-half however with star players Bruno Fornaroli and Diego Castro gradually getting more involved.
Perth centre-back Jonathan Aspropotamitis would hand his side a lifeline in the 82nd minute with a goal from close range and Garcia's side never stopped pushing for an equaliser with Fornaroli going closest in injury-time with an overhead effort that went well wide.
Though consecutive losses mark a poor start for Glory in Asia, the nature of this defeat should give them some hope moving forward with games set to come thick and fast over the next fortnight.
Garcia started the match against Shenhua with a number of young, untested players, who will benefit greatly from this experience.
Goalscorer Aspropotamitis meanwhile dominated across the pitch, completing a game-high 97 passes and 12 recoveries. Having initially joined Glory simply for this competition, he looks eager to secure a longer deal and certainly did his chances no harm on Wednesday.
Castro and Fornaroli also showed glimpses of their class after a long off-season and their performances moving forward will be key to Perth's latest foray into Asia.
