Mujica gave Al Sadd a sixth minute lead before scoring his side’s second in the 61st minute after seeing Yuya Osako level for Kobe in the 24th minute, with the Spaniard also setting up Roberto Firmino to give the Qatar Stars League outfit a 3-1 lead.

Yusuke Ideguchi pulled one back for Kobe in the 74th minute but, with Al Sadd defending late in the game, Mujica made way for defender Ahmed Suhail in the 90th minute, only for Yoshinori Muto to level for the Japanese side three minutes later.

Kobe would go on to win the shoot-out 5-4 after goalkeeper Daiya Maekawa had made several key saves during extra-time but Mancini had stressed he no regrets regarding the decision or his team’s performance.

“We had the last four minutes and, in that moment, Vissel played in our half and we needed to close maybe more space,” the Italian said of the substitution. “I think in this game we deserved to win, but this is football. Sometimes you lose when you deserve to win.”

The loss came three days after Al Sadd had prevailed in a penalty shoot-out against four-times champions Al Hilal SFC from Saudi Arabia, and the former Manchester City manager praised his team’s resilience under the circumstances.

I think we played a fantastic game because after the 120 minutes three days ago we did a very good performance,” he said. “We deserved to win this game, because it was 3-1 and they scored in the last second, but this is football."

“This is football. You can win, or maybe you can make some mistake and you can concede a goal like us in the last second.

“I am very happy with my players because they were fantastic. We played after three days and against a Vissel Kobe team that played their last game eight days ago, they were fresher than us.

“We deserved to win this game, but sometimes this can happen. We conceded a goal in the last second and we had chances in the extra time. After, in a penalty shoot-out, anything can happen.

“When I took the team we were out of the AFC Champions League Elite. We were at the bottom of the table. We qualified for the Finals, for this phase, but I can say nothing about the players. I was very proud of them. They were fantastic in these two games.”