When you concede a damaging away goal – in a competition where away goals are "doubled" in the event of an aggregate draw over the two legs – you know you might be in even bigger trouble.

So to say Melbourne Victory are up against it in their second-leg Asian Champions League tie in Jeonju against Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea next week is hardly an understatement.

Kevin Muscat's side flew out of Victoria at the weekend knowing the odds are stacked against them and few will see them as anything but outsiders against a team that has won the last two K-League championships and is riding high in the embryonic league table this season.

The 1-1 draw at AAMI Park last week showcased how difficult things can be at this level.

Victory got off to the perfect start when Besart Berisha headed them in front early, but they then conceded a spectacular free-kick by Jeonbuk's Brazilian midfielder Leonardo. All the scoring came in the opening  quarter of an hour, and try as they might for the next 75 minutes Victory could not find a way through.

The emotion of Archie Thompson's final home game might have had some impact, but that was mainly in the stands not on the pitch. Players might be cognisant of such milestones before a game kicks off, but they tend not to think too much about it during the match.

Yet, as Muscat pointed out after the match, there are reasons to hope that the dream remains alive.

Jeonbuk threatened to get on top for a brief period after they equalised but the A-League club managed to hold firm and for most of the second half dominated possession and had chances to take the lead and make this a much more evenly-balanced second leg.

That they didn't is their own fault, but conversely, it's what gives Muscat hope that his side can pull off an upset on the road.

Jeonbuk effectively settled for the point and the away goal they had secured, optimistic they can do the job in front of their own fans.

That was a reasonable assumption, certainly tactically, but history is replete with teams who thought they had accomplished the toughest piece of the assignment in the away leg only to come unstuck.

And it is that which Muscat is hoping will be a determining factor in this match.

Jeonbuk will not be expected to sit back in a home game – even though a thoroughly boring 0-0 draw would send them through to the next round on the away goals rule.

The Victory boss is hoping the pressure of making the play will lead to his side getting chances on the break, the sort of opportunities that the pacy Berisha and Kosta Barbarouses might be able to take.

In all three of their away fixtures in the group stages Victory scored an away goal –  1-1 draws against Gamba Osaka in Japan and Suwon Bluewings in Seoul, and a 3-1 loss to group winners Shanghai SIPG in China.

Muscat is optimistic they will be able to at least match that, and is hopeful the defensive resolve which saw them get results in South Korea and Japan can be replicated.

It's a tall order a long way from home. But there would be no more fitting way for Barbarouses – who is off to Wellington – Mathieu Delpierre, who is retiring, and Thompson, who is yet to decide on his future, to finish their decorated careers in navy blue.

"The tie is still wide open. We can take confidence from the amount of chances we created. We should have won the game, we limited them to very few sightings of our goal," Muscat said after the game.

"They are a good team but we will take confidence from the amount of openings we created, We have won games 3-0 and 4-0 in the last few years and created nowhere near as many chances as we did tonight."

The next few days will show if those words were bravado, or grounded in fact. Victory had never made the knock-out stages of the ACL before this year, now no one at the club wants the ride to stop.