After seeing his side fail to find a way through the Machida defence throughout the first half, Conceicao made several changes in the second half he hoped would force a break through.

But while halftime substitute Steven Bergwijn went close and second half replacement Abdulrahman Al Obud set up Youssef El-Nesyri to head against the post soon after his introduction, Al Ittihad were to finish the match exasperated by their elimination.

“We had to find solutions,” Conceicao said of his changes “We tried to control the middle because in the first half there was no threat on our goal and that’s why we didn’t change anything in the first half.

“We made some substitutions and we did better. We were more dangerous and we had more threats on goal. I believe everybody has seen the changes were good and we were able to make more opportunities in the second half.

“Everything went well but we weren’t successful.”

Houssem Aouar also hit the woodwork for the 2004 and 2005 champions while Conceicao’s irritation at his team’s inability to convert their chances was compounded when a late strike by Danilo was ruled out by referee Ma Ning for handball.

“Our players scored and I thought the goal was good and fair,” he said. “We had a lot of opportunities. We had the upper hand and we were better but at the end of the day that was the referee’s decision.”