It’s everyone’s favourite club football competition, the Champions League. Teams from across the continent play each other in the hope of being crowned, the champions of champions. This, however, is not the Champions League you think of by default. This is the Asian variation, and it’s getting serious.
The AFC Champions League in its first incarnation can be traced to the 1960s, where relatively few teams contested a knock-out based competition, although the contest lacked appeal which led to teams not taking it seriously and intentionally fielding poorer teams. This disorganisation and void of professionalism saw the competition go on hiatus in the early 1970s until the mid-80s.
The format was changed quite a bit until the Asian Football Confederation decided to use the standardised thirty-two team, eight-group and knockout format in 2002. The only major difference between the Asian and European competitions is that the AFC have split groups by geographic boundaries. The divide ensures that teams won’t have strenuous commutes across the large continent. This means that teams from the set Eastern and Western zones will not play each other until the final.
This season’s competition is now in the quarter-final stage, and there are four riveting fixtures as this competition reaches its dramatic conclusion.
The Eastern Zone’s first quarter-final is between the UAE-based club, Al-Ain and Uzbekistan side,Lokomotiv Tashkent FK. Al-Ain is a very successful club domestically having won several league titles and qualifying for this tournament by finishing as the runner-up last season. Al-Ain’s line-up is complete with several international stars, including former Liverpool and Dutch international, Ryan Babel. That said, Babel has been frozen out for the most part from the first-team action due to an internal conflict between club and player.
Ryan Babel, now of Al-Ain seen here warming up for Liverpool.
Their opposition in the tie comes from Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Lokomotiv was founded in 2002 and field a largely home-grown team. So far, their champions league campaign has been almost spotless. Unbeaten throughout the entirety of the group stage navigated a tricky round of sixteen games against Al-Hilal by winning 2-1.
The second quarter-final bracket sees the Qatari team, El Jaish faces off against the Dubai-based team, Al Nasr. El Jaish is considered one of the 2022 World Cup host nation’s most decorated teams. Last season their Moroccan striker, Abderrazak Hamadallah scored a very fruitful twenty-one goals from twenty-three appearances. Albeit in the Qatari league, but still, the kind of statistics that would get Arsene Wenger excited.
Al Nasr qualified for the tournament by virtue of their appearance in the UAE Super Cup. The team may struggle here considering their top goalscorer, Nilmar, has left the club just a few days ago to join Greek side, Olympiacos .The team struggled in their round of sixteen but managed to advance with a 5-4 win against Iranian opposition.
The Western side of the draw is made up of Chinese and South Korean teams exclusively. Shanghai SIPG, or more commonly known as: “the Chinese team that Sven-Göran Eriksson manages” are set to play Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. This will be the first time that the two sides have ever met in any capacity. The Chinese Super League representative are in the competition as they finished as the runners-up in last years’ CSL campaign. The club and league, in general, are notorious for making very glamourous transfers fees and having astronomical expenditure on players wages. As a matter of fact, Shanghai SIPG broke the league transfer fee record by paying £47m+ to Zenit St. Petersburg for Brazilian player, Hulk. The same team also employ former Sunderland and Al-Ain striker, Asamoah Gyan. Fair to say that Sven’s men have a lot of quality from their international players; which certainly add to their attacking adroitness.
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Hulk now of Shanghai SIPG seen here celebrating during his time at Zenit.
Against them is the current K-League Classic Champions, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. The team are also well on the way to another domestic league title as they top the table and are unbeaten in twenty-seven games. Brazilian duo Lopes and Leonardo provide the main firepower for the club having scored seventeen times between them this season. Their home leg will be something to watch, even if just for their state-of-the-art stadium which was specially built for the 2002 World Cup.
The final tie of the round bears witness to another meeting between FC Seoul and Shangdong Luneng. The South Korean team come into the game on quite a major high, having won their last five league games, including their last match where they mauled Jeonnam Dragons, winning 4-1. The runners-up in last year’s K-League Classic have quite a few notable players. Their main man in front of goal, Damjanović who plays for the Montenegrin national setup has moved around quite a bit in Asian football and now finds himself back at FC Seoul for his second stint with the club. Former Arsenal man, Chu-Young Park also lines up for Seoul and has looked impressive after returning to South Korea.
Some of the vibrant home supporters for FC Seoul.
Whilst Shandong Luneng is in a champions league quarter final here, they do have urgent work domestically too. The club has seemingly fallen from grace, having finished third last year, now they find themselves just three points outside of the relegation zone. It’s fair comment to say the club did not expect such a drastic switch in fortune. The summer transfer window did allow them to add to their international quota as they brought in former Premier League players Papiss Cissé and Graziano Pellè. This competition may be seen as a distraction for the manager, Felix Magath, who has already experienced the unpalatable feeling of relegation.
The two teams have met four times before, including in this year’s group stage. FC Seoul won the away fixture 4-1 and drew 0-0 at home. Whilst, not a storied rivalry, there’s plenty of previous to urge both teams forward.
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