Ola Toivonen opened the scoring against the K-League outfit, but Victory fell away as Daegu impressed with their counter-attacks.

Victory have struggled in the ACL and have only made it past the group stage once in their previous six appearances in the competition,

They turn their attention to Sanfrecce Hiroshima away next Tuesday night and Donachie admitted his boys were tired in the second-half against Daegu this week.

“Rest is the most important thing, in the second-half against Daegu, I think our boys showed we were struggling a bit,” Donachie told FTBL.

“Not to take anything away from Daegu as they were better than us. We just need to rest well, especially in Japan which’ll be a tough game again.

“The boys are hungry big-time to get something out of the ACL. We’ve got a good team to have a crack this year.

“We need a good rest and the Newcastle Jets game meant it was a quick turnaround. If we get our boys rested up and have a good trip there, we have every chance and we’ve got a squad that compete over there I think.”

Donachie added the return of captain Carl Valeri would be a boost to the squad.

The skipper was on the bench after recovering with a hamstring problem.

“We’ve had a lot of boys in and out which never helps a team with consistency,” he said.