After picking up three points against Suwon Samsung Bluewings in their last Continental appearance back in February, the ambitious J1 League side have endured a difficult year domestically and went into the AFC Champions League's resumption on the back of five successive defeats.

But a change of scenery brought about an upturn in fortunes as the Kobe club improved as the game went on to open their account in Qatar with a win and leave two-time champions Guangzhou Evergrande to fight it out with Suwon for the second qualifying spot in the three-team group.

Iniesta was at his brilliant best at Khalifa International Stadium, teeing up Kyogo Furuhashi’’s opening goal late in the first half, before making the points safe, and sending Vissel to the Round of 16 with a sweetly struck goal of his own in the 84th minute.

Na Sung-eun's solitary strike was enough to bag the three points as the Korea Republic side’s defence played a huge role in keeping the clean sheet that helped them cross the line at the end, consigning Sydney FC to early elimination from the group stage.

The 2019 J1 League champions dominated throughout but the game was only decided in the 90th minute when substitute Jun Amano tapped in a rebound after Teruhito Nakagawa’s header was fumbled into his path by the Chinese Super League side’s keeper. Oscar had missed a penalty for Shanghai SIPG eight minutes earlier.

Based from Brighton to Bulgaria, we’ve identified 10 of the continent’s top performers on the global stage over the last seven days, but who deserves the title of AFC International Player of the Week?

Here are our contenders from November 18 to 24:

Thirty-two players from all five of the AFC's Zones began the contest more than six weeks ago and that number has now been whittled down to just two as fans voted in their masses to help Ashfaq and Chan reach the showpiece event.

The final pits South Asia against East Asia as Maldivian superstar Ashfaq's superb solo goal for Male side New Radiant in 2013 goes up against a wonderful strike by Chan for Hong Kong's South China AA in 2013.

In a showdown between arguably the biggest talents in their respective countries, Malaysian Safawi - currently on loan at Portuguese side Portimonense - polled 70 percent of the votes against Vietnamese sensation Quang Hai.