Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kawasaki: Having failed to reach the last eight stage in their last two appearances in the AFC Champions League, Kawasaki Frontale are back in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2009. And, like that continental campaign eight years ago, they will once again clash with their countrymen. This time Urawa Red Diamonds will be their opponents, while before it was Nagoya Grampus.
The quarter-final defeat to Nagoya in 2009, was the second consecutive last eight elimination for Kawasaki. Their maiden appearance at the AFC Champions League had come two years earlier.
Drawn in a Group F with Korea Republic’s Chunnam Dragons, Arema Malang of Indonesia and Thai club Bangkok University, the Japanese side breezed through the first phase with five wins in six games as they went undefeated to top the standings.
In the Knockout Stage, though, the J.League club came unstuck. After 210 minutes of football over two legs with no goals, Kawasaki were eliminated on a penalty shoot-out by the eventual runners-up, Sepahan of IR Iran.
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