The continent’s premier club football competition is set to kick off this week, as four South Korean teams will vie for regional bragging rights.
The Asian Football Confederations Champions League will start with eight group-stage matches on Tuesday and eight more on Wednesday. The K-League, the top-division South Korean league, has four representatives among 32 clubs in the opening round.
On Tuesday, Pohang Steelers, who won the 2009 Champions League, will start their Group E campaign against Gamba Osaka of Japan’s J-League on the road at 7 p.m. Then at 7:30 p.m. on the same day, Ulsan Hyundai FC, the K-League runner-up in 2011, will host Beijing Guoan of the Chinese Super League in Group F.
Two more K-League clubs will play on Wednesday. At 7 p.m., it’s the defending K-League champion Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors playing host to the reigning Chinese champion, Guangzhou Evergrande FC, in Group H. Also at 7 p.m., Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, the 2010 Champions League winner, will square off against Nagoya Grampus of the J-League in a Group G contest.
These teams will be back for their second group matches in two weeks.
There are eight groups of four clubs, and they play each other twice in a home-and-away setting. The top two teams from each group will make up the round of 16.
The group stage will wrap up in mid-May and the knockout phase begins later that month. The quarterfinals and the semifinals are scheduled for September and October.
(Yonhap News)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
