Melbourne Victory have been humbled by Guangzhou Evergande, smashed 4-0 on Wednesday night in another Asian Champions League away day destruction.
Victory were two down within 10 minutes courtesy of Brazilian forward Talisca and couldn't compete with the Chinese Super League heavyweights.
"We weren't up to scratch," Victory captain Carl Valeri conceded.
"We made too many mistakes against a quality team, they punish you every time."
Talisca, one part of a A$100million double act with former Barcelona midfielder Paulinho, ran the show in front of a packed Tianhe Stadium.
Paulinho's run through midfield just prior to half-time allowed Chinese international Yang Liyu to net a third.
Leigh Broxham was powerless to prevent an own goal 18 minutes from time, compounding a brutal loss that destroys Victory's hopes of progressing in the competition.
Kevin Muscat's side are bottom of Group F without a point after three games, with their three opponents on six points each.
"We have no complaints. We were beaten by the better team on the night," Muscat said, all but accepting Victory's qualifying hopes were done.
"We will still compete. We will still fight (but qualifying) becomes very difficult to qualify now."
Victory picked up where they left off on their last visit to play Guangzhou Evergrande; Muscat's first ACL match as coach back in 2014.
On that night, Victory shipped four goals in the second half to lose 4-2.
The streak continued when Talisca stormed into the box to head home after six minutes, burning off Broxham and facing no resistance from a static Corey Brown.
The Brazilian had already sent a free-kick onto the corner of the goal frame, and moments later, he had his second, cutting past Brown once more before unleashing an unstoppable curler into the net.
The visitors' best chances came through Kosta Barbarouses but they over-committed on one effort before half-time and conceded the third on transition.
Any hopes Victory had of replicating Sydney FC's 3-3 scoreline from earlier in the night were dashed when Broxham suffered a slice of misfortune following Talisca's free kick.
Acton, deputising once more for Lawrence Thomas, saved the Brazilian's effort but Gao Lin's follow up ricocheted off the gloveman into Broxham's leg for an own goal.
Muscat said his team couldn't cope with Talisca.
"The first goal with a header, he has scored already a few goals from the same action. We were aware of this ... such was the quality we didn't deal with it," he said.
"His second goal was world class. After that it was going to be a long night, a very difficult night."
The loss was Victory's 21st unsuccessful attempt to win an away match in Asia in their history.
Australian Associated Press
