Sanfrecce Hiroshima boss Mihailo Petrovic said his team was close enough but not good enough in last night's 3-2 Asian Champions League loss to Adelaide United.

The J-League club were courageous in defeat after being a goal down and then being reduced to ten men when Bulgarian defender Ilian Stoyanov was sent from the pitch in the first half.

But they rallied to gain the lead thanks to goals from Kazu Morisaki and substitute Issei Takayanagi before conceding two late goals to give the Australian side the victory and leave their own campaign hanging by a thread.

"We came here to win. We got very close," he said.

"Adelaide's style didn't change (after the sending-off), they had one extra player and they were just able to push us further.

"The defence conceded three goals so I can't really compliment them tonight," he added.

"There are positives and negatives for the match and it depends what the players will take from it.

"I'm not sure of the results of the other teams so we'll just go back and wait for revenge next Tuesday (in the return fixture in Japan)."

Sanfrecce sit on the bottom of the Group H table with zero points from three matches and host Adelaide next week as they strive to get off the mark in their 2010 campaign.