South China plan damage limitation

South China are keeping their fingers crossed that they will not be thrashed by Dalian Wanda in the Asian Club Championship tonight.

It is an extremely tough task for injury-hit South China as Dalian, the two-time Chinese Professional League champions, are expected to field all five of their Chinese internationals in the second-round, first-leg clash at Mongkok Stadium.

The Caroliners will be without their Hong Kong Footballer of the Year Au Wai-lun, Scottish striker Lee Bullen, midfielders Wu Qunli and Leslie Santos, utility player Sung Lin-yung and defender Yau Kin-wai.

And English goalkeeper Iain Hesford has also been dropped as each team is allowed to field no more than three expats.

Team director Peter Leung Shou-chi admitted they would have a hard time.

'We have altogether 22 players in the team but seven of them cannot play. We don't even have enough players on the bench,' said Leung. 'The match will be extremely difficult for us. I hope we can produce a good performance. We will try our best to win but even if we lose, I hope we won't be thrashed. It will be a big blow to our morale which will greatly affect our league campaign.' The Caroliners are to play a 5-4-1 formation to strengthen their defence. Brazilian defender Aurelio Da Siva will be playing his last major game in a South China shirt, as he will leave for Greece next Thursday. He will be joined in the defence by Yugoslav Ignjic Radislav, Ku Kam-fai, Ng Chun-chung and Shum Kwok-pui.