Marcello Lippi rues Guangzhou Evergrande's misses against Al Ittihad
Late goal by Al-Ittihad condemns Italian's side to Champions League exit at quarter-final stage
Marcello Lippi was left to rue his side's lack of luck and killer instinct in front of goal as Guangzhou Evergrande's AFC Champions League campaign came to a heartbreaking halt at the hands of Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad.
Fahad Mosaed Al-Muwallad's 78th minute goal was enough to take the Jeddah-based club into the semi-finals at Guangzhou's expense, even though the Chinese Super League champions emerged 2-1 victors last night.
The 5-4 aggregate defeat was difficult to swallow for Lippi and his team, who saw Lucas Barrios and Dario Conca score in the first half as Guangzhou overturned the two-goal deficit they suffered in the 4-2 loss in the first leg.
But a failure to kill off Ittihad - both Barrios and Conca hit the woodwork and Gao Lin missed several gilt-edged chances - came back to haunt Guangzhou and end their hopes of becoming the first Chinese side to reach the last four since 2005.
"We haven't had that much luck with all the chances that we missed, but I've been in many European Champions League matches, more than 80 games, and you need a bit of luck to go on," said the World Cup-winning Italian. "That's what we didn't have today and that's what you need to go on."
Guangzhou made an impressive start in front of a vociferous and passionate Tianhe Stadium and by the 19th minute Barrios had given his team the lead with a shot on the turn that beat Mabrouk Zaid in the Ittihad goal.