Underdogs Lee Man know Champions League play-off ‘won’t be easy’

Lee Man go into Tuesday’s AFC Champions League (ACL) play-off against title-holders Urawa Red Diamonds as significant underdogs, but assistant coach Jordi Tarres believes victory would yield major benefits for the Hong Kong side.

A 5-1 thrashing of Bali United has left last year’s Premier League runners-up one game from the group phase of the continental championship.

And while the winners will join Hong Kong champions Kitchee among the 40 clubs involved in Thursday’s draw in Kuala Lumpur, the game at Saitama Stadium represents a sizeable step up in class for Lee Man.

“For us, for the club it would be the first time to participate in the Champions League, so it would be amazing if we have the chance to go through this play-off,” Tarres said.

“We know it’s not easy work, it’s a big hurdle. It would change a lot if we had the ability to go through, we would make history and the adjustments that the club would make if we go through are important.”

Lee Man are appearing in the ACL play-offs for the first time in the club’s short history, and their qualification is another sign of the rapid development since their formation six years ago.

They were pipped by Kitchee to the title on the last day of the season, but the addition of Dutch midfielder Mitchel Paulissen and Estonian striker Henri Anier has strengthened the squad.

Kitchee have profited from playing in the ACL, with their regular appearances making the club a more attractive proposition to investors and overseas talent while enhancing levels of professionalism in the club.

Those are benefits Lee Man would hope to enjoy should they advance and, despite the play-offs coming so early in the season, Lee Man impressed against Bali United, underling the potential the team has.

“The new signings still have to adapt to the rest of the players and the style of the team, but they are doing it so fast from the first day until today,” Tarres said. “I can see that day-after-day they have more connections, better understanding between them. It helps a lot the style, the performance of the team.

“The new signings are giving us more quality, more level in all aspects, so hopefully this season, not only tomorrow’s game, we can reach higher things.”

Urawa, however, are the immediate challenge facing Lee Man and, while Skorza’s side have struggled to maintain their best form during the summer, a Reds squad captained by three-time World Cup defender Hiroki Sakai is likely to be a step too far for Tsang Chiu Tat’s team.

“We expect a top-level demand from Urawa, they are the current ACL champions and that means they have top quality players,” said Tarres, who will serve as de facto head coach as Tsang does not possess the necessary licence to officially fill the role in Asian competition.

“We have checked quite a lot of games so we know a bit about them, but still we keep the ambition and the enthusiasm to try to fight in this game and get a good result.

“Still we are not in our peak form, we still need more weeks to reach this level but in the last game we performed well so at least we’re in a good range to face this high demand game. We will see. The hurdle is very big but we will try our best for sure.”