Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Saitama: Urawa Red Diamonds defender Tomoaki Makino conceded he and his teammates were outclassed by Al Hilal SFC as the Saudi Arabian side finally claimed their first-ever AFC Champions League title with victory over the two-time winners on Sunday.
Tsuyoshi Otsuki’s men failed to feed off an electric atmosphere at Saitama Stadium, where the 2017 AFC Champions League winners went down meekly against the visitors from Riyadh.
It was the first time in tournament history that a Japanese club has lost the AFC Champions League final, and Reds defender Makino made no excuses as their bid for a third continental crown was unsuccessful.
www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/urawa_red_diamonds_v_al_hilal_sfc_2.html
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has congratulated Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal SFC for clinching the 2019 AFC Champions League title following their 3-0 aggregate victory over Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds on Sunday.
Continental club Champions in 1991 and 2000, Al Hilal’s victory sees them join Korea Republic’s Pohang Steelers as the only side to clinch three titles and the first side in the West Zone to claim the coveted crown since Qatar’s Al Sadd in 2011.
The 2019 AFC Champions League season also created history with new engagement records set across all social media platforms, with 305.8 million fans engaged on Twitter and another 260.9 million on Instagram.
More than 78.9 million have been engaged on Facebook with the biggest increase coming from the AFC’s YouTube channel which has seen a staggering 556% increase in new subscribers.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Saitama: Razvan Lucescu hailed his Al Hilal players as the club from Saudi Arabia ended their AFC Champions League hoodoo with a win over Urawa Red Diamonds at Saitama Stadium on Sunday that ensured the trophy returns with them to Riyadh.
Al Hilal avenged their defeat against the same opponents two years ago to become the first club from Saudi Arabia to secure the title since Al Ittihad claimed the second of their back-to-back crowns in 2005 to erase bitter memories of previous final failure.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Saitama: Urawa Red Diamonds head coach Tsuyoshi Otsuki was left lamenting his side’s inability to claw back their first-leg deficit in the opening 45 minutes of the second leg of the 2019 AFC Champions League final as the two-time champions lost out on Sunday to Al Hilal SFC.
The side from Saudi Arabia completed a 3-0 aggregate win thanks to second half goals from Salem Al Dawsari and Bafetimbi Gomis to claim the title for the first time in the club’s history.
Urawa went into the game at Saitama Stadium trailing by a goal from Andre Carrillo in the first leg in Riyadh two weeks ago and Razvan Lucescu’s side kept the 2007 and 2017 champions’ attack quiet throughout much of the game.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Saitama: Goals from Salem Al Dawsari and Bafetimbi Gomis ensured Al Hilal claimed the AFC Champions League for the first time in the club’s history as the Riyadh-based side completed a 3-0 aggregate win over Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds at Saitama Stadium on Sunday.
Al Dawsari’s close range effort 16 minutes from time and Gomis’ injury time strike gave Al Hilal a 2-0 win on the night and allowed them to complete a historic win following their first leg victory at the King Saud University Stadium two weeks ago.
Al Hilal become the first club from West Asia to win the title since Al Sadd’s victory in 2011 and they are the first team from Saudi Arabia to claim the trophy since the second of Al Ittihad’s back-to-back wins in 2005.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Saitama: Bafetimbi Gomis of Al Hilal SFC scored a double of Sunday as he was named the 2019 AFC Champions League MVP and won the Top Scorer award.
Gomis scored 11 goals in Al Hilal's campaign, which saw the Saudi Arabia side win the AFC Champions League title after defeating Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 on aggregate, with the former France international scoring Al Hilal's second goal in Sunday's 2-0 second leg win at the Saitama Stadium.
Gomis' goals and leadership played a pivotal role in Al Hilal's triumph, a first for the club after having fallen in the 2014 and 2017 finals.
Gomis was a mainstay in Al Hilal's campaign, featuring in all 14 matches the Saudi club played en route to winning the title.
Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tokyo: The AFC Champions League, one of the world’s most highly regarded club competitions, should be further enhanced, the AFC Competitions Committee decided at their meeting in Tokyo, Japan on the eve of the 2019 second leg final between Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN) and Al Hilal (KSA).
And to grow the national team game in Asia, in line with the AFC’s Vision and Mission of keeping football the number one sport on the Continent, it was agreed that a ‘week of football’ should be introduced for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers Final Round.
The second meeting of the Committee for the cycle 2019 to 2023, chaired by Dr Tran Quoc Tuan, heard that the idea of expanding the AFC Champions League to 40 teams was to transform the competition from ‘exclusive’ to ‘inclusive’ by increasing the number of Member Associations competing from 12 to 20.