Reporter Cheng Shan reported Lost 0-1 at home to Yokohama Mariners, Shanghai Port, who led the league with two consecutive wins, suffered three consecutive defeats in the AFC Champions League. However, compared with the previous stage, the more incomplete lineup of the harbor has made some progress to the outside world. "The next step is to focus on how we can create opportunities like we do today." As Muscat said, the harbor under renovation still needs to be practiced.

"We have the opportunity to do something special in the knockout rounds by working on our own." Just before the rematch with the Yokohama Mariners, Harbour coach Muscat said this. "Confidence comes from ourselves, not from other people's performances, and when we have the opportunity to compete with other teams in Asia, we want everyone to have the same confidence as in domestic competitions, and if you do that, anything is possible."

After returning to the Chinese Super League stage, although Harbour faced the problem of personnel disorganization, in the first two games, they still occupied the top of the standings with the most goals scored and the fewest goals conceded - such a performance naturally gave Muscat more confidence. In the context of the big change, the multi-front operation and a number of core injuries plagued by the harbor, recently in some key positions of the activation of players, foreign aid run-in is gradually getting better, compared with the messy at the beginning of the year, Muscat is now in the overall style of play and detail control, so that the outside world has seen a certain improvement.

On the other hand, Muscat's old club, Yokohama Mariners, who finished first in the group stage, only scored 3 draws and 1 loss in 4 games in the new J-League season, scoring only 2 goals, and are currently in 15th place in the standings. But Yokohama Mariners boss Holland wasn't bothered by a poor start to the league and decided there was a big difference between the AFC Champions League and the league.

Just the day before the game, Muscat actually hesitated in the main lineup, "After the last game, some players are still a little uncomfortable, everyone's recovery is different, and it may only be clear at noon on the day of the game." ”

What made Harbour even more puzzled was that Harbour was notified only three hours before the game that Yusa would miss the game because of the accumulation of three yellow cards. "This news is also a distraction and interruption for our game and preparation!" After the game, Muscat deliberately expressed his puzzlement about this - because at the pre-match joint meeting the day before, the AFC confirmed that the suspension list was only Wei Zhen alone.

The fact that versatile Yusa was out of action was undoubtedly worse for Harbour, who already had only four foreign players left. Muscat and the coaching staff immediately redeployed, taking into account the existing personnel and the desire to play a more aggressive style of play, Muscat made changes to the formation and strengthened the role of the available personnel on the flanks at both ends of the pitch. Jiang Guangtai and Li Ang are in the center, and Wang Shenchao and Fu Huan are separated. Xu Xin partnered Yang Shiyuan in the midfield, while Tomorrow and Vital swam on both sides, with Leonardo and Gustavo as the forward partners.

After the start of the game, Harbour won a corner kick in the first minute of the opening game, but in the 9th minute, Fu Huan, who was originally entrusted with the heavy responsibility, was injured in a leg injury in a scramble and was substituted, which disrupted Muscat's deployment again.

After Vital missed an almost guaranteed goal, the lucky scales began to tip in Yokohama Marino's. In the 30th minute, the harbor defenders made a series of mistakes in the penalty area, and Li Ang, who was hindered by the yellow card, could only watch Zhizhong Asahi send an inverted triangle knock after losing his defensive position, and Yang Shiyuan, who hurriedly returned to the front of the goal, failed to clear the siege and turned it into an oolong assist, and finally let the Yokohama Mariners foreign aid Lopes score the goal, 0-1, and the harbor was breached at home.

At half-time, Muscat stressed not to think about conceding the ball, hoping that the players can really show their level and play with strong momentum. Under Muscat's deployment, the Harbour team not only insisted on high pressing in the second half, but the rotation of several young players really made the game look better. In the 69th minute, Harbour shifted the ball to the left and Li Shuai hit the post with his foot, which was also the most dangerous shot of the game for Harbour.

But then the Korean masterSeveral penalties by Kim Jong-hyuk have sparked some controversy.

In the 79th minute, the Yokohama player cleared the penalty area and rebounded to his hand, and the harbor player signaled for a handball foul on the opponent, but the referee did not say anything. After the game, Muscat also complained in a gentle way: "The opponent had a hand touch in the penalty area, the decision at that time was far from what we expected, and if the decision was different, the final result could have been different." ”

In the 86th minute of the game, Leonardo once unloaded the ball in the opponent's penalty area and turned to adjust to score a goal, but the referee determined that he had a foul action of carrying the opponent with his hand first, and whistled for a foul before the Brazilian shot, which made Leonardo very dissatisfied, but the result of 0-1 could not be changed.

Despite the bitter loss of the controversy, Muscat still affirmed the team's performance, "I think the team has improved today compared to the past, and we did get some chances today against stronger opponents. Now we have to focus on how to create chances like we did today and that's how we can score. ”

In a week's time, Harbour will play Yokohama Mariners again on the road, and what fans are looking forward to is perhaps the further change Muscat brings to the team than the difficult comeback to advance.