Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic is adamant his team have gained plenty of belief and confidence, despite a heartbreaking 2-1 Asian Champions football League away loss to Japan's Kawasaki Frontale.
The Wanderers led for much of the match through a 24th minute goal from Labinot Haliti, but missed a chance to consolidate a playoff spot on Tuesday.
Haliti, who scored the winner in their home game against Kawasaki, took advantage of inept goalkeeping and marking to head home Dean Heffernan's wickedly inswinging corner.
The obdurate Wanderers' defence cracked twice in the last 20 minutes after enduring massive second half pressure, with Yasuhito Morishima smashing a shot against the crossbar and lively Brazilian Renato firing in four shots.
The result moved Kawasaki level on points with the Wanderers with two rounds to go.
Western Sydney retain second spot ahead of Kawasaki only by virtue of having scored more goals than them over the first four rounds.
With last-placed Guizhou Renhe scoring a 3-1 home win over group leader Ulsan Hyundai, all four teams can still qualify for the next phase.
South Korea's Ulsan are on seven points, one clear of both Wanderers and Kawasaki, with China's Guizhou, a further two points back.
In the penultimate round on April 15, the Wanderers travel to Ulsan and Guizhou host Kawasaki.
Popovic said the Wanderers took many positives out of the game.
"I think after tonight we've gained even more confidence," Popovic said.
"They have some individuals in this team that we couldn't afford in the A-League, so that's the kind of quality that we're up against and we were this close to getting a win, or getting a result.
"We certainly gained a lot of belief from this performance."
Frontale levelled in the 74th minute through what Popovic described as 'a cheap goal.'
Wanderers defender Antony Golec deflected a shot from Kawasaki captain Kengo Nakamura past goalkeeper Ante Covic.
Kawasaki's 88th minute winner came from midfielder Kyota Ohshima, who fired a 25 metre shot past a possibly unsighted Covic.
"It was disappointing that we conceded a goal from distance. where we defended so valiantly for such a long period," Popovic said.
"Our boys did fantastically well. I think we showed that we can compete at this level against an excellent team."
Covic had just one shot to save in the first half, but the Wanderers were lucky not to concede a penalty, when Golec appeared to get away with a handball.
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