Lee Man were given a stark introduction to the standards at the summit of Asian football as last year’s Hong Kong Premier League runners-up were handed a convincing 3-0 defeat by Urawa Red Diamonds, any hope of a place in the Asian Champions League being rapidly extinguished.
Two goals in the first six minutes at Saitama Stadium sent Urawa – the defending champions after winning the title in May – on their way to a place in Thursday’s draw for the 40-team group phase while Lee Man were left to consider the yawning gulf between the sides.
Yoshio Koizumi and Shinzo Koroki struck early to put an Urawa side missing several of their first-choice selections in command and Maciej Skorza’s side barely needed to operate beyond strolling pace to see off the challenge of Tsang Chiu-tat’s side.
“We took maybe a bit long to get into the game,” Lee Man’s assistant coach Jordi Tarres said. “I think [during] the first 10 minutes we [could not] match the pace of the game. Also we made some mistakes, but we expected that because of Urawa, because of their quality.
“But honestly I wouldn’t say that was a bad performance from us. We were [facing] the current champions of ACL, so I think it’s not bad from our side and it’s also our second official game of the season.”
Koizumi gave Urawa the ideal start in the second minute of what could have been a tricky fixture for a team that has been struggling recently for form. He was left unmarked to side-foot home Tomoaki Okubo’s cut-back.
Lee Man’s defence had been unlocked by the invention of Shoya Nakajima, making his first start for Urawa since returning to Japan from Europe last month, when he released Okubo – and the former international was instrumental again as Reds doubled their lead.
It was Nakajima who deftly threaded the ball into the path of Hiroki Sakai four minutes later as the three-time champions scored again through veteran striker Shinzo Koroki.
The 37-year-old’s goals were significant in Urawa’s Asian Champions League triumphs in 2017 and 2022 and he showed he had lost none of his predatory instincts, outwitting Fernando Recio to head in Sakai’s curling cross from the right.
The encounter threatened to turn into a glorified training game for the home side, with Lee Man limited to hopeful long-range efforts from Ngan Lok-fung and Gil Martins in the opening 20 minutes as the visitors finally started to establish some kind of foothold.
Martins forced goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa to push his 23rd-minute strike over the bar, but that only served to lift Urawa out of their minor lull, with Nakajima prompting Chan Ka-ho to tip over the playmaker’s strike from the edge of the area.
Moments later Koizumi was narrowly off-target as Urawa probed again, even though some of the urgency and zing had gone from the hosts’ play.
Okubo and substitute Bryan Linsenn almost opened up Lee Man for a third. The Dutchman saw his low strike whistle across the face of goal with Chan well beaten, before Okubo curled an effort wide.
Mitchel Paulissen, who had been instrumental in last week’s win over Bali United that secured the meeting with Urawa, brought a reaction save out of Nishikawa in a rare foray forward.
But substitute Takahiro Sekine put the result beyond any doubt for the champions in injury time when he side-footed home to kill off an outclassed Lee Man.