Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins was disappointed by his side’s 4-0 loss to Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels, but is looking ahead.
A brace from Lee Se-eun after first-half goals from Kim Dam-bi and Thais Guedes saw Incheon to its win at the AFC Women’s Club Championship.
While satisfied by the way Victory started, Hopkins lamented the result on Tuesday.
“Obviously pretty disappointed,” he told a news conference.
“I thought we actually started the game quite well, the first 20-25 minutes we were definitely in the game, creating chances.
“But after that, for a number of reasons I think we didn’t deal very well with the pressure on the ball, we started to turn balls over and once we conceded, we were in a little bit of trouble.
“It’s disappointing, but I guess we’ve got a game now in a couple of days and we’ll think about tonight’s game and then put it behind us and look forward to the next game.”
Victory made an energetic start in Yongin, but it conceded twice in the first half.
Hopkins – whose team face Jiangsu Suning on Thursday – was impressed by WK League champion Incheon.
“I was impressed with them actually. We’d seen a fair bit of them, we knew what they were like. I was impressed with their pressure, they put us under pressure,” he said.
“We dealt with it for maybe 25 minutes, but it was constant, consistent pressure and after I think maybe they wore us down with the pressure.
“The amount of time they could actually keep that press and that pressure up, that’s something most probably we’ve not been used to in the Australian game and it’s something we need to get better at.”
