Singapore's biggest club, Singapore Armed Forces were no match for the might of Shanghai Shenhua in their opening ACL encounter.

The fact they were reduced to ten men after 24 minutes gave the Armed Forces little comfort but they were somehow still in the match deep into the second half.

Hernan Barcos converted the ensuing penalty that came from Hafiz Osman handling the ball in the area and being shown a red card.

The match remained in that state until England-born Singaporean John Wilkinson equalised in the 64th minute but that only got the Chinese club into action.

Yu Tao gave Shanghai the lead back before Yin Xifu made it 3-1.

Argentine striker Barcos added his second prior to full-time to finish the match 4-1.

Usually a scoreline such as that would impress a coach but Shanghai boss Jia Xiuquan said his side needed to do more.

"We created a lot of goal-scoring opportunities today but took only a few of them. However the result looked good," said Jia.

"I said they (SAF) are not weak and they proved it today as we had to fight hard for our victory.

"I believe we have so much to learn and think about after this game. It is not time to look forward to the next game because we first have to gain an insight into our performance tonight.

"It was our first match in this year's AFC Champions League, so it was understandable that some players ran out of stamina and made mistakes because of nervousness.

"Every game is difficult in the continental tournament. My players did their best today and we are determined to do the same in our upcoming matches."