The Sky Blues dominated the majority of their encounter against Ulsan Hyundai but finished with nothing to show for it, slipping to a 1-0 loss to Ulsan Hyundai.

The US national team's former midfielder and Manchester City loanee, Mix Diskerud, did the damage through a cheeky backheel on the 54th minute against the run of play.

Anthony Caceres and Danny De Silva both shot straight at Oh Seung Hoon from dangerous positions as a profligate Sydney wasted key chances in the second half.

The Sky Blues are now eliminated along with Melbourne Victory and Australia stands a very real chance of exiting the Champions League without a win.

The loss leaves Sydney with just one win in their past 15 Champions League encounters but the statistics are dire across the board. Due to A-League clubs' porous performances in the competition, Australia now sits behind Thailand in the AFC ranking coefficient.

There are no Australian clubs in the top 20 ranked sides in Asia. To make matters worse for the Aussies, AFC plan to eventually remove FIFA ranking points as a factor for their club rankings, which could see Australia drop dramatically.

Ranking Member Association Total Points FIFA Points Club Points 2018 2017 2016 2015
2018 2017 Mvmt Points (10%) Points (90%)
1 6 5 +5 Qatar Qatar 98.494 1258 8.494 74.250 90.000 19.850 13.400 22.000 19.000
2 3 1 +1 China China 95.277 1317 8.893 71.267 86.384 16.200 24.567 14.750 15.750
3 2 -1 -1 South Korea South Korea 89.245 1405 9.487 65.800 79.758 18.350 9.950 20.750 16.750
4 1 -3 -3 United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 84.536 1309 8.839 62.450 75.697 8.100 11.350 18.000 25.000
5 5 0 — Japan Japan 84.033 1414 9.548 61.450 74.485 13.850 21.850 10.500 15.250
6 7 1 +1 Iran Iran 81.879 1481 10.000 59.300 71.879 18.850 16.200 13.000 11.250
7 4 -3 -3 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 73.681 1335 9.014 53.350 64.667 10.000 18.600 9.500 15.250
8 10 2 +2 Thailand Thailand 59.045 1160 7.833 42.250 51.212 16.200 15.050 1.000 10.000
9 8 -1 -1 Australia Australia 51.757 1436 9.696 34.700 42.061 7.300 5.900 14.000 7.500
10 11 1 +1 Iraq Iraq 45.632 1271 8.582 30.566 37.050 8.633 8.933 9.833 3.167

(Source: Wikipedia)

This could mean that the A-League loses its two automatic Champions League qualification places, even with an extra team set to enter the competition at the beginning of next season.

To recap Australia's recent performances in Asia:

- Socceroos slump out of Asian Cup at the quarter-finals
- Both A-League powerhouses exit the ACL at the group stage and could leave winless
- Australia now ranked behind Thailand (9th) in AFC club coefficient
- A-League clubs have seven wins in their last 38 ACL matches
- Sydney just one win in their last 15 matches

"I thought we had the best chances of the game, we had three one-on-ones with the keeper and they should have scored," a resilient Steve Corica said.

"I'm very proud of our boys. Credit to Ulsan, but I think we should have won the game."