"No it wasn't a fair result," he told www.au.fourfourtwo.com moments after the final whistle at Hindmarsh stadium. "It could've gone either way really. We had a couple of chances. Physically we competed well and we played some pretty good football. When you consider the amount of players we had out I thought we'd done pretty well."

The Reds were missing Aloisi, as well as Bobby Petta, Jason Spagnuolo and Diego Walsh under new coach Aurelio Vidmar. A second half own goal from defender Michael Valkanis gave the visitors the points.

"We weren't rusty, we just seemed a bit nervous," added Aloisi. "The Chinese were pretty good and they are big boys, but they're nothing special. They are nothing to be scared of. We should've scored."

However, the former skipper heaped praise on attacking duo of Burns and Djite who he said worked hard in the heat. "They're good players. Bruce started to wilt late in the game but they both did well.

"It's not going to be easy to top the group now. We need to win every single game from now on." Adelaide travels to Vietnam for their second game against Dong Tam Long An on March 21 while Shandong are at home on the same night against South Korea's Seongnam Chunma.