Andre Villas-Boas denied complacency almost cost his Shanghai SIPG team a third straight win in the group stage of the Asian Champions League on Wednesday evening as they continued their march towards the knockout rounds with a 3-2 win over Urawa Red Diamonds.
SIPG stormed into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from She Ki, Elkeson and Hulk inside the opening 53 minutes, but a penalty from Rafael da Silva and a close-range effort from Wataru Endo five minutes from time resulted in a nervous finish.
Shinzoh Koroki's sending off just before the final whistle ultimately ensured SIPG took all three points, and Villas-Boas was in buoyant mood as his team moved on to nine points from their first three games in Group F.
"I don't think my players were too relaxed when leading 3-0," he said. "We had the chance to make it to 4-0 before they got that penalty.
"The game was more open when the scoreline was 3-1. They were pushing very hard with lots of opportunities while we were getting a bit contracted, even though our players' execution ability was good. If we managed to grasp more chances the scoreline would have been higher than this."
SIPG travel to Japan to meet Urawa again next knowing victory will see them safely through to the round of 16.
"We are very upbeat and very happy," Villas-Boas said. "Our opponent was strong, so we prepared carefully for this game. We scored three times and although we couldn't score more and we let them score twice, we won in the end.
"It is a very pleasing result. The next game against Urawa will be more difficult, so we will have to prepare with greater effort."
Jiangsu Suning, meanwhile, are in pole position in Group H after their third win of the campaign -- a 1-0 victory against Japan's Gamba Osaka -- kept Choi Yong-Soo's team on track to move into the round of 16 of the competition.
Ex-Chelsea man Ramires scored the only goal of the game in the first half to maintain Jiangsu's perfect start and move them five points clear of second-placed Jeju United from South Korea.
"We've never qualified from the Asian Champions League group stages before," Choi said. "Today we moved one more step forward in that direction, however our team hasn't reached its peak.
"We are still a team in development and although we are in a good position we can't be negligent."