The pace of Olyroo Buhagiar up front – filling the vacancy up front left by the departed Adam Le Fondre – exposed a number of early openings for Sydney as they resumed their ACL campaign with palpable urgency at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
Five minutes in,Buhagiar teed up Barbarouses as the Sky Blues surged on a rapid counter-attack,but the Kiwi international blew an easy header.
The duo combined again two minutes later,with Barbarouses turning provider and Buhagiar this time converting the cross to put them deservedly in front.
Ben Warland,deputising forCOVID-stricken defender Ryan McGowan,then hit the post with a header from a corner kick in the 14th minute,letting Shanghai off the hook yet again.
Barbarouses had another golden opportunity early in the second half when Grant played him in with a cutback,only for the Kiwi international to once more undercook his finish.
A team like Shanghai SIPG,even without ex-Premier League stars Oscar and Marko Arnautovic,was always going to punish that degree of profligacy,and so it proved.
Sydney,too,were missing a host of key players;six members of the starting team thatwon August's A-League grand final were either injured,suspended,otherwise absent or have departed the club.
That meant a debut senior appearance for 19-year-old midfielder Calem Nieuwenhof,while the inexperienced Heward-Belle started in goal withAndrew Redmayne back in Sydney,but Corica's remodelled selection acquitted themselves well.
Heward-Belle,however,never looked comfortable and saw red in the first minute of injury time for a handball well outside the box,after rushing out to suffocate another SIPG raid and badly misjudging the situation.
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Despite the undermanned squad,the Sky Blues will look back on this match as yet another that has somehow gotten away from them in the ACL despite getting most things right.
Heward-Belle is now automatically suspended for Sydney's next match,meaning either Adam Pavlesic or Levi Kaye – both untried players – will have to play in goal when they face Korean champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors on Wednesday.
With only one point to show from their first three games in Group H,and their next three to be played within the space of just eight days,Sydney are facing an almost impossible task to reach the knockout stage – but they really only have themselves to blame.
"It was always a tough group and I thought we had to get three points tonight to move forward,"Corica said."It's still possible. We'll hopefully learn our lesson. We have to start winning games,simple as that. Draws aren't enough for us at the moment."
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