The defeat leaves Wanderers bottom of their AFC Champions League group and all but eliminated with two games to go, needing a miracle to progress, with the top two sides ahead by six points.

“We missed an opportunity tonight,” Popovic told Fox Sports. “We played well enough to win.

“In crucial moments we got punished for mistakes and it’s a bit hard to take because you see two wonderful goals for us, yet you go away with nothing.”

Wanderers went behind early when Lee Seok-Hyun unleashed a stunning long-range strike on four minutes, before Dejan Damjanovic’s penalty made it 2-0 before the break.

The penalty award wasn’t without controversy with Scott Neville’s contact appearing to take place outside the box, although Popovic avoided discussing the decision.

“That happens, we got caught a couple of times going forward,” he said.

“He’ll learn from it. At this level you get punished for any mistakes.

“It’s a shame because I thought we deserved a lot more than that.”

Popovic added: “It was a disappointing start to concede so early.

“A wonderful strike and then we completely dominated but copped that killer blow with the penalty late in the first half.

“They sat back and defended and played on the break. We scored two wonderful goals but conceded three very poor goals.”