2015 AFC Champions League

2015 AFC Champions League

Tournament details
Dates	4 February – 21 November 2015
Teams	49 (from 21 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Guangzhou Evergrande (2nd title)
Runners-up	Al-Ahli
Tournament statistics
Matches played	143
Goals scored	392 (2.74 per match)
Attendance	2,288,863 (16,006 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ricardo Goulart (8 goals)
Best player	Ricardo Goulart

The 2015 AFC Champions League was the 34th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 13th under the current AFC Champions League title.

Guangzhou Evergrande won the tournament after defeating Al-Ahli in the final. Guangzhou also qualified for the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup.^[1]

Western Sydney Wanderers were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage.

Association team allocation

The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014,^[2] which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014.^[3] The member associations are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2014 rankings:^[4]

• The top 24 member associations (MAs) as per the AFC rankings are eligible to receive direct slots in the AFC Champions League, as long as they fulfill the AFC Champions League criteria.
• In both the East and West zones, there are a total of 12 direct slots in the group stage, with the 4 remaining slots filled through play-offs.
• The top six MAs in both the East and West zones get direct slots in the group stage, while the remaining MAs get play-off slots:
  • The first- and second-ranked MAs each get three direct slots and one play-off slot.
  • The third- and fourth-ranked MAs each get two direct slots and two play-off slots.
  • The fifth-ranked MAs each get one direct slot and two play-off slots.
  • The sixth-ranked MAs each get one direct slot and one play-off slot.
  • The seventh- to twelfth-ranked MAs each get one play-off slot.
• The maximum number of slots for each MA is one-third of the total number of clubs in the top division (e.g., Australia can only get a maximum of three total slots as there are only nine Australia-based clubs in the A-League).

The AFC Competitions Committee finalised the slot allocation for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Champions League based on the criteria, including AFC's MA rankings and the implementation of club licensing regulations, on 28 November 2014.^[5][6][7]

Participation for 2015 AFC Champions League[6]
	Fulfills participation criteria
	Does not fulfill participation criteria

Notes

Teams

The following 49 teams from 21 associations entered the competition.^[8]

In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League.

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).^[10]

Stage	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary stage	Preliminary round 1	No draw	4 February 2015
	Preliminary round 2		10 February 2015
Play-off stage	Play-off round		17 February 2015
Group stage	Matchday 1	11 December 2014[11]	24–25 February 2015
	Matchday 2		3–4 March 2015
	Matchday 3		17–18 March 2015
	Matchday 4		7–8 April 2015
	Matchday 5		21–22 April 2015
	Matchday 6		5–6 May 2015
Knockout stage	Round of 16		19–20 May 2015	26–27 May 2015
	Quarter-finals	18 June 2015[12]	25–26 August 2015	15–16 September 2015
	Semi-finals		29–30 September 2015	20–21 October 2015
	Final		7 November 2015	21 November 2015

Qualifying play-off

The bracket for the qualifying play-off, which consisted of three rounds (preliminary round 1, preliminary round 2, and play-off round), was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team.^[13] Each tie was played as a single match, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the match. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary. The winners of each tie in the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 24 automatic qualifiers. All losers in each round which were from associations with only play-off slots entered the 2015 AFC Cup group stage.^[1]

Preliminary round 1

Team 1	Score	Team 2
East Zone
Yadanarbon	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–6 p)	Warriors
Johor Darul Ta'zim	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Bengaluru FC

Preliminary round 2

Team 1	Score	Team 2
West Zone
Al-Qadsia	1–0	Al-Wehdat
El Jaish	2–1	Al-Nahda
Al-Sadd	0–0 (a.e.t.) (11–10 p)	Riffa
East Zone
Hà Nội T&T	4–0	Persib Bandung
Chonburi	4–1	Kitchee
Guangzhou R&F	3–0	Warriors
Bangkok Glass	3–0	Johor Darul Ta'zim

Play-off round

Team 1	Score	Team 2
West Zone
Al-Ahli	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Al-Qadsia
Naft Tehran	1–0	El Jaish
Bunyodkor	2–1	Al-Jazira
Al-Wahda	4–4 (a.e.t.) (4–5 p)	Al-Sadd
East Zone
FC Seoul	7–0	Hà Nội T&T
Kashiwa Reysol	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Chonburi
Central Coast Mariners	1–3	Guangzhou R&F
Beijing Guoan	3–0	Bangkok Glass

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 11 December 2014.^[13] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[1]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Greater number of away goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
5. If, after applying criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 apply;
6. Goal difference in all the group matches;
7. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
8. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
9. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
10. Team who belongs to the member association with the higher AFC ranking.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LEK	PER	NSR	BYD
1	Lekhwiya	6	4	1	1	9	5	+4	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–0	1–1	1–0
2	Persepolis	6	4	0	2	7	7	0	12			3–0	—	1–0	2–1
3	Al-Nassr	6	2	2	2	7	6	+1	8			1–3	3–0	—	1–1
4	Bunyodkor	6	0	1	5	2	7	−5	1			0–1	0–1	0–1	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AIN	NAF	PAK	SHB
1	Al-Ain	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	12	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–0	1–1	0–0
2	Naft Tehran	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			1–1	—	1–1	2–1
3	Pakhtakor	6	1	3	2	6	8	−2	6			0–1	2–1	—	0–2
4	Al-Shabab	6	1	2	3	5	8	−3	5			0–1	0–3	2–2	—

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		HIL	SAD	FOO	LOK
1	Al-Hilal	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	2–0	3–1
2	Al-Sadd	6	3	1	2	9	9	0	10			1–0	—	1–0	6–2
3	Foolad	6	1	3	2	2	4	−2	6			0–0	0–0	—	1–0
4	Lokomotiv Tashkent	6	1	1	4	10	13	−3	4			1–2	5–0	1–1	—

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AH(S)	AH(U)	NSF	TRA
1	Al-Ahli	6	3	3	0	11	7	+4	12	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	2–1	2–0
2	Al-Ahli	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			3–3	—	0–0	3–2
3	Nasaf Qarshi	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8			0–0	0–1	—	2–1
4	Tractor Sazi	6	1	1	4	7	11	−4	4			2–2	1–0	1–2	—

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KSW	JHM	SLT	BBD
1	Kashiwa Reysol	6	3	2	1	14	9	+5	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–2	2–1	5–1
2	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6	3	2	1	14	6	+8	11			0–0	—	4–1	3–0
3	Shandong Luneng Taishan	6	2	1	3	13	17	−4	7			4–4	1–4	—	3–1
4	Becamex Bình Dương	6	1	1	4	6	15	−9	4			1–0	1–1	2–3	—

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GAM	SNM	BUR	GRF
1	Gamba Osaka	6	3	1	2	10	7	+3	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	1–1	0–2
2	Seongnam FC	6	3	1	2	7	5	+2	10			2–0	—	2–1	0–0
3	Buriram United	6	3	1	2	12	7	+5	10			1–2	2–1	—	5–0
4	Guangzhou R&F	6	1	1	4	3	13	−10	4			0–5	0–1	1–2	—

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BJG	SSB	BRI	URA
1	Beijing Guoan	6	3	2	1	6	3	+3	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–0	0–1	2–0
2	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11			1–1	—	3–1	2–1
3	Brisbane Roar	6	2	1	3	7	9	−2	7			0–1	3–3	—	1–2
4	Urawa Red Diamonds	6	1	1	4	5	9	−4	4			1–1	1–2	0–1	—

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GET	SEO	WSW	KSM
1	Guangzhou Evergrande	6	3	1	2	9	9	0	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–0	0–2	4–3
2	FC Seoul	6	2	3	1	5	4	+1	9			0–0	—	0–0	1–0
3	Western Sydney Wanderers	6	2	2	2	9	7	+2	8			2–3	1–1	—	1–2
4	Kashima Antlers	6	2	0	4	10	13	−3	6			2–1	2–3	1–3	—

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the teams split between the two zones until the final. Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.^[1]

Bracket

	Round of 16						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Persepolis	1	0	1
	Al-Hilal	0	3	3
							Al-Hilal	4	2	6
							Lekhwiya	1	2	3
	Al-Sadd	1	2	3
	Lekhwiya	2	2	4
													Al-Hilal	1	2	3
												Al-Ahli	1	3	4
	Naft Tehran (a)	1	1	2
	Al-Ahli	0	2	2
							Naft Tehran	0	1	1
							Al-Ahli	1	2	3
	Al-Ahli (a)	0	3	3
	Al-Ain	0	3	3
																		Al-Ahli	0	0	0
																			Guangzhou Evergrande	0	1	1
	Suwon Bluewings	2	2	4
	Kashiwa Reysol (a)	3	1	4
							Kashiwa Reysol	1	1	2
							Guangzhou Evergrande	3	1	4
	Seongnam FC	2	0	2
	Guangzhou Evergrande	1	2	3
													Guangzhou Evergrande	2	0	2
												Gamba Osaka	1	0	1
	Jeonbuk Motors	1	1	2
	Beijing Guoan	1	0	1
							Jeonbuk Motors	0	2	2
							Gamba Osaka	0	3	3
	FC Seoul	1	2	3
	Gamba Osaka	3	3	6

Round of 16

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group in the same zone, with the group winners hosting the second leg.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
West Zone
Al-Sadd	3–4	Lekhwiya	1–2	2–2
Persepolis	1–3	Al-Hilal	1–0	0–3
Al-Ahli	3–3 (a)	Al-Ain	0–0	3–3
Naft Tehran	2–2 (a)	Al-Ahli	1–0	1–2
East Zone
Suwon Samsung Bluewings	4–4 (a)	Kashiwa Reysol	2–3	2–1
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2–1	Beijing Guoan	1–1	1–0
FC Seoul	3–6	Gamba Osaka	1–3	2–3
Seongnam FC	2–3	Guangzhou Evergrande	2–1	0–2

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 June 2015. Teams from different zones could not be drawn into the same tie, and there was no seeding or country protection, so teams from the same association could be drawn into the same tie.^[14]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
West Zone
Al-Hilal	6–3	Lekhwiya	4–1	2–2
Naft Tehran	1–3	Al-Ahli	0–1	1–2
East Zone
Kashiwa Reysol	2–4	Guangzhou Evergrande	1–3	1–1
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2–3	Gamba Osaka	0–0	2–3

Semi-finals

In the semi-finals, the matchups were determined by the quarter-final draw.^[14]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
West Zone
Al-Hilal	3–4	Al-Ahli	1–1	2–3
East Zone
Guangzhou Evergrande	2–1	Gamba Osaka	2–1	0–0

Final

In the final, the finalist from the West Zone hosted the first leg, while the finalist from the East Zone hosted the second leg (no draw was held to determine the order of legs, as it was reversed from the previous season's final).^[14]

Guangzhou Evergrande won 1–0 on aggregate.

Winners

AFC Champions League 2015 Winners
Guangzhou Evergrande Second Title

Awards

Award	Player	Team
Most Valuable Player[15]	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande
Top Goalscorer[15]	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande
Fair Play Award[15]	—	Guangzhou Evergrande

Dream team

The AFC selected the following 11 players as 2015 AFC Champions League dream team.^[16]

Pos.	Player	Team
GK	Masaaki Higashiguchi	Gamba Osaka
DF	Zhang Linpeng	Guangzhou Evergrande
	Kwon Kyung-won	Al-Ahli
	Kim Young-gwon	Guangzhou Evergrande
	Yasser Al-Shahrani	Al-Hilal
MF	Huang Bowen	Guangzhou Evergrande
	Zheng Zhi	Guangzhou Evergrande
	Majed Hassan	Al-Ahli
FW	Ahmed Khalil	Al-Ahli
	Elkeson	Guangzhou Evergrande
	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Team	MD1	MD2	MD3	MD4	MD5	MD6	2R1	2R2	QF1	QF2	SF1	SF2	F1	F2	Total
1	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande	1	3	2					2							8
2	Yang Xu	Shandong Luneng Taishan	2	1		1	2										6
	Ahmed Khalil	Al-Ahli	1					2		2		1					6
4	Youssef Msakni	Lekhwiya					1	1	1	1	1						5
	Omar Al Soma	Al-Ahli		1		2				2							5
	Asamoah Gyan	Al-Ain		1			1	1		2							5
7	Patric	Gamba Osaka					2			1		1					4
	Takashi Usami	Gamba Osaka					1	1	2								4
	Masato Kudo	Kashiwa Reysol		2		1					1						4
	Lee Dong-gook	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors			2		2										4
	Carlos Eduardo	Al-Hilal									2	1		1			4
	Diogo	Buriram United					1	3									4
	Lima	Al-Ahli									1	1	1	1			4
	Everton Ribeiro	Al-Ahli				1	1	1						1			4

Note: Goals scored in qualifying play-off not counted when determining top scorer (see regulations, Article 77.4).^[1][17]

Source: the-AFC.com^[18][19][20]

See also

• 2015 AFC Cup
• 2015 FIFA Club World Cup

References

External links

• AFC Champions League, the-AFC.com