Sriwijaya coach Rahmad Darmawan was impressed with the performance his team produced in defeating Shandong Luneng 4-2.

The Indonesian club were winless in their first five group matches and although they were no chance in moving to the next phase, a positive performance was what the coach was after.

"I am very pleased and impressed with the way the boys played tonight and their desire not to give up despite being 2-0 down," he said.

"We maintained a positive spirit at half-time and finally the lads accepted and understood that we have the quality to compete with the other teams at this level.

"I can rest assured that we achieved what we aimed to do by showing our fans most importantly that we are resilient and not easily defeated.

"Of course Shandong are strong opponents but we finally managed to beat them through our positive nature."