Glory go down on ACL return

Perth Glory has suffered a 2-1 defeat in their Asian Champions League clash with Chinese powerhouse Shanghai Shenhua in Doha.

Shanghai established a 2-0 lead at the break courtesy of goals from Peng Xinli and Yu Hanchao, but the men in purple rallied in the second half and set up a frantic finale when Jonathan Aspropotamitis halved the arrears nine minutes from time.

An equaliser eluded Perth in Richard Garcia's opening match as coach, but it was an encouraging showing as part of a new look Glory outfit that featured seven debutants for the club.

Perth conceded an early goal, , Zhu Jianrong making inroads down the right flank before pulling the ball back for Xinli who swept home a low shot into the far corner of Tando Velaphi's net from just inside the box.

Garcia's men had their chances in the opening half to equalise but couldn't capitalise, Shanghai doubling their advantage against the run of play before the half time whistle.

This time it was Hanchao who surged into the box and his toe-poke eluded Velaphi to roll over the line.

Glory finally made the breakthrough inside the final ten minutes when substitute Carlo Armiento fired in angled shot which Lu parried and Aspropotamitis pounced to rifle the loose ball into the back of the net.

Sensing a chance to put pressure on their highly fancied opponents Glory duly turned up the heat in the final minutes, but despite the best efforts of Fornaroli, who saw a spectacular overhead kick flash over, were not able to find an equaliser.

Next on the agenda for Garcia's side is a meeting with Ulsan Hyundai on Tuesday 24 November with kick-off at 9pm WST.

IMAGE: The West Australian.