The Central Coast Mariners prolonged their historic season by the narrowest of margins on Tuesday, scraping into the knock-out stages of the Asian Champions League for the first time despite a 3-0 defeat against Kashiwa Reysol.
The Mariners conceded second-half goals in Gosford to Kudo Masato and Brazilian pair Cleo and Leandro Domingues, but Guizhou Renhe’s failure to beat Suwon Bluewings meant the A-League champions edged the Chinese side to second place in Group H by a solitary point.
The Bluewings’ 2-2 draw at Guizhou Renhe made Central Coast, who won their first A-League title just 10 days ago, only the third Australian side to reach the knock-out stages of the Asian Champions League.
It also set up a possible meeting for the Mariners with Guangzhou Evergrande and the Chinese side’s former World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi.
“It probably hasn’t sunk in properly yet because I’m a bad loser and we lost 3-0,” Mariners coach Graham Arnold said. “It’s a funny feeling at the moment.”
The Mariners dominated territory and possession in the first half but Kashiwa gradually gained a foothold and, in the 66th minute, Brazilian midfielder Jorge played a slide rule pass through the middle to Kudo for the striker to place past goalkeeper Mat Ryan.
The visitors, playing only for pride after already wrapping up first place in Group H, added to their tally in front of the 7623 crowd 13 minutes later when Cleo tucked the ball away after confusion in the Mariners’ box.
With the Mariners opening up due to Arnold’s attacking substitutions, Leandro made it 3-0 in the closing stages with a free kick that Ryan got both hands to but could not keep out.
Arnold said last week’s 1-0 win at Suwon Bluewings – the Mariners’ first away win in three Asian Champions League campaigns – pushed his side through.
“The game against Suwon two days after the grand final is the reason we are here,” Arnold said.
“I’d prefer to look at that than the performance tonight.”
The manager took the blame for the scale of the defeat due to attacking substitutions and a switch of tactics in pursuit of goals that would have been crucial had Guizhou won.
“I take responsibility from 1-0 on because I thought the first 60 minutes we were real good value,” Arnold said.
“When they got the goal against the run of play we went man on man over the whole park, we tried to press high and that gave them more space.
“When you give quality players more space they hurt you but we had to go for it and we couldn’t rely on the other result.
“We had to try and get it back and win the game ourselves.”
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