2007 AFC Champions League

2007 AFC Champions League

Tournament details
Dates	7 March – 14 November 2007
Teams	28
Final positions
Champions	Urawa Red Diamonds (1st title)
Runners-up	Sepahan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	92
Goals scored	230 (2.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mota (7 goals)
Best player	Yuichiro Nagai

The 2007 AFC Champions League was the 26th edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament and the 5th edition under the current AFC Champions League title.

Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds became champions for the first time, beating Sepahan of Iran and becoming the fourth Japanese club to win the Asian championship, and qualifed for the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup.

Participating clubs

Along with the defending champion, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, 28 other clubs from fourteen countries qualified based on performance in domestic league and cup competitions. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors entered the competition at the quarter-finals.

The draw took place in Kuala Lumpur on 22 December, allocating teams into seven groups. In February, the AFC disqualified Esteghlal Tehran from Group B for failing to register their players in time.^[1] This reduced the number of competing teams to 28.

Defending Champions (1)
Korea Republic (1)	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (2006 AFC Champions League winners)
East Asia & ASEAN (12)
Australia (2)†	Adelaide United (2005–06 A-League premiers) Sydney FC (2006 A-League Grand Final winners)
China (2)	Shandong Luneng Taishan (2006 Chinese Super League champions and 2006 Chinese FA Cup winners) Shanghai Shenhua (2006 Chinese Super League runners-up)
Indonesia (2)	Persik Kediri (2006 Liga Indonesia Premier Division champions) Arema Malang (2006 Copa Indonesia winners)
Japan (2)	Urawa Red Diamonds (2006 J. League Division 1 champions and 2006–07 Emperor's Cup winners) Kawasaki Frontale (2006 J. League Division 1 runners-up)
Korea Republic (2)	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (2006 K-League champions) Chunnam Dragons (2006 Korean FA Cup winners)
Thailand (1)†	Bangkok University FC (2006 Thailand Premier League champions)
Vietnam (1)†	Gach Dong Tam Long An (2006 V-League champions)
Central & South Asia and West Asia (16) (15)
Iran (2) (1)	Esteghlal (2005–06 Iran Pro League champions) Sepahan (2005–06 Hazfi Cup winners)
Iraq (2)	Al-Zawraa (2005–06 Iraqi Premier League champions) Najaf FC (2005–06 Iraqi Premier League runners-up)
Kuwait (2)	Al Kuwait (2005–06 Kuwaiti Premier League champions) Al-Arabi (2006 Kuwait Emir Cup winners)
Qatar (2)	Al Sadd (2005–06 Qatar Stars League champions) Al-Rayyan (2006 Emir of Qatar Cup winners)
Saudi Arabia (2)	Al-Shabab (2005–06 Saudi Premier League champions) Al-Hilal (2005–06 Saudi Crown Prince Cup winners)
Syria (2)	Al-Karamah (2005–06 Syrian League champions) Al-Ittihad (2005–06 Syrian Cup winners)
UAE (2)	Al-Wahda (2005–06 UAE Football League runners-up) Al Ain (2005–06 UAE Emir Cup winners)
Uzbekistan (2)	Pakhtakor (2006 Uzbek League champions and 2006 Uzbekistani Cup winners) Neftchi (2006 Uzbek League runners-up)

Format

Group Stage

A total of 28 clubs were divided into 7 groups of four, based on region i.e. East Asian and Southeast Asian clubs were drawn in groups E to G, while the rest were grouped in groups A to D. Each club played double round-robin (home and away) against fellow three group members, a total of 6 matches each. Clubs received 3pts for a win, 1pt for a tie, 0pts for a loss. The clubs were ranked according to points and tie breakers were in the following order:

• Points earned between the clubs in question
• Goal Differential between the clubs in question
• Points earned within the group
• Goal Differential within the group
• Goals For within the group

The seven group winners along with the defending champion advanced to the quarter-finals.

Knockout Round

All eight clubs were randomly matched; however, the only restriction was that the clubs from the same country could not face each other in the quarter-finals. The games were conducted in 2 legs, home and away, and the aggregate score decided the match winner. If the aggregate score couldn't produce a winner, "away goals rule" was used. If still tied, clubs played extra time, where "away goals rule" still applied. If still tied, the game went to penalties.

Group stage

Group matches were scheduled to be played over match days on 7 March 21 March 11 April 25 April 9 and 23 May 2007.

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Al-Wahda	6	4	1	1	13	6	+7	13
Al-Zawraa	6	3	2	1	9	6	+3	11
Al-Arabi	6	2	1	3	10	12	−2	7
Al-Rayyan	6	0	2	4	3	11	−8	2

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Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Al-Hilal	4	2	2	0	5	1	+4	8
Pakhtakor	4	2	0	2	3	5	−2	6
Al Kuwait	4	0	2	2	2	4	−2	2
Esteghlal (*)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

(*) Esteghlal was disqualified for failing to submit their players list in time.

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Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Al-Karamah	6	3	2	1	11	7	+4	11
Neftchi	6	3	1	2	6	7	−1	10
Najaf FC	6	2	2	2	9	8	+1	8
Al Sadd	6	1	1	4	6	10	−4	4

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Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Sepahan	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13
Al-Shabab	6	3	1	2	9	3	+6	10
Al Ain	6	1	3	2	5	8	−3	6
Al-Ittihad	6	0	3	3	3	13	−10	3

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Group E

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Urawa Red Diamonds	6	2	4	0	9	5	+4	10
Sydney FC	6	2	3	1	8	5	+3	9
Persik Kediri	6	2	1	3	6	16	−10	7
Shanghai Shenhua	6	1	2	3	7	4	+3	5

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Group F

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Kawasaki Frontale	6	5	1	0	15	4	+11	16
Chunnam Dragons	6	3	1	2	7	8	−1	10
Arema Malang	6	1	1	4	2	9	−7	4
Bangkok University	6	0	3	3	4	7	−3	3

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Group G

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	6	4	1	1	13	6	+7	13
Shandong Luneng Taishan	6	4	1	1	12	8	+4	13
Adelaide United	6	2	2	2	9	6	+3	8
Gach Dong Tam Long An	6	0	0	6	4	18	−14	0

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Knock-out stage

Bracket

	Quarter finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Sepahan (p)	0	0	0 (5)
	Kawasaki Frontale	0	0	0 (4)
							Sepahan	3	0	3
							Al-Wahda	1	0	1
	Al-Wahda (a)	0	1	1
	Al-Hilal	0	1	1
													Sepahan	1	0	1
													Urawa Red Diamonds	1	2	3
	Seognam Ilhwa Chunma	2	2	4
	Al-Karamah	1	0	1
							Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	2	2	4 (3)
							Urawa Red Diamonds (p)	2	2	4 (5)
	Urawa Red Diamonds	2	2	4
	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (2006 Champion)	1	0	1

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sepahan	0–0 (5–4p)	Kawasaki Frontale	0–0	0–0 (a.e.t.)
Al-Wahda	1–1 (a)	Al-Hilal	0–0	1–1
Seognam Ilhwa Chunma	4–1	Al-Karamah	2–1	2–0
Urawa Red Diamonds	4–1	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (2006 Champion)	2–1	2–0

First leg

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Second leg

• Sepahan progress 5–4 on penalties after 0–0 aggregate score

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• Al-Wahda progress on away goals rule with 1–1 aggregate score

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• Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma progress 4–1 on aggregate

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• Urawa Red Diamonds progress 4–1 on aggregate

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sepahan	3–1	Al-Wahda	3–1	0–0
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	4–4 (3–5p)	Urawa Red Diamonds	2–2	2–2 (a.e.t.)

First leg

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Second leg

• Urawa Red Diamonds progress 5–3 on penalties after 4–4 aggregate score

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• Sepahan progress 3–1 on aggregate

Final

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sepahan	1–3	Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	0–2

First leg

Second leg

• Urawa Red Diamonds win 3–1 on aggregate

Winners

AFC Champions League 2007 Winners
Urawa Red Diamonds 1st Title

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Mota	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	7
2	Kim Dong-hyun	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	5
	Mehdi Seyed Salehi	Sepahan
4	Rodrigão	Al-Hilal	4
	Firas Al Khatib	Al-Arabi
	Saeed Mohsen	Najaf FC
	Steve Corica	Sydney FC
	Travis Dodd	Adelaide United
	Robson Ponte	Urawa Red Diamonds
10	Magnum	Kawasaki Frontale	3
	Juninho	Kawasaki Frontale
	Kengo Nakamura	Kawasaki Frontale
	Wang Yongpo	Shandong Luneng Taishan
	Li Jinyu	Shandong Luneng Taishan
	Emad Mohammed	Sepahan
	Mahmoud Karimi	Sepahan
	Mamadou Bagayoko	Al-Wahda
	Waleed Al-Gizani	Al-Shabab
	Diego Alonso	Shanghai Shenhua
	Fernando	Adelaide United
	Iyad Mando	Al-Karamah
	Senghor Koupouleni	Al-Karamah
	Tatsuya Tanaka	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Yuichiro Nagai	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Yuki Abe	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Choi Sung-Kuk	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma

See also

• 2007 FIFA Club World Cup

External links

• AFC Champions League Official Page (English)
• AFC Calendar of Events 2007
• Champions League 2007, Group Stage Draw from official site.
• Champions League 2007, Knockout Stage Draw from official site.

References