“A massive win that’s important to us,” said Munoz. “We are working every day to arrive at levels like this. I’m very happy for the players because they suffered every day and today they showed their character, rhythm, capacity and played very well.

“Today, we played 4-4-2 in defence with good intensity. We had control in different spaces, very good high press. We recovered the ball higher and that’s very positive for us.

“I’m happy that the players understand we need to have different phases for different moments of the season.”

A Jonathan Silva brace and a superb Oscar Arribas strike gave the Malaysian champions the win, with Saulo Mineiro netting from the penalty spot for Shenhua.

Shenhua head coach Leonid Slutskiy was under no illusion where the tie was won and lost, pointing to the concession of the opening goal from Silva just three minutes into the second half as the moment the match started to slip away from them.

“It was important as to who scored first because after we conceded, we had to go in attack and that gave space for the very skillful Johor players,” said Slutskiy.

“It was very difficult for us. After we scored we tried to push more and we managed to create chances but we just couldn’t take them.”

Matchday Five sees JDT away to Australia’s Melbourne City FC on November 25 while a wounded Shenhua have an imposing home encounter against Vissel a day later.