AFC Champions League - Landing Page

The 30-year-old Brazilian let fly with a bicycle kick from an acute angle in a jaw-dropping strike against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors that caught the attention of football lovers from across the continent.

Despite a narrow 2-1 loss in Korea Republic, the Hong Kong champions now have back-to-back home games and are aiming to reach the knockout stage for the second successive season.

The-AFC.com caught up with Mikael to discuss his hopes for the campaign, the rise of the AFC Champions League and, of course, that goal.

As we await the action to resume, the-AFC.com has selected 10 of the best goals from Matchday One and invites you, the fans, to cast your votes for your favourite ones.

The next round of matches kick off in the first week of October but, before that, the-AFC.com looks back at what some of those involved had to say after their Matchday One encounters.

Eight former AFC Champions League winners are in the running for this year’s title, while a further eight sides were appearing in the group stage for the first time and a host of global superstars also made their debuts in the tournament.

As the sides now look forward to the Matchday Two encounters in early October, the-AFC.com looks back at the week in numbers.

With global superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar making their debuts, eight former AFC Champions League winners in the fray and just as many teams making their first bows, the coming weeks promise more enthralling action.

Join the-AFC.com as we take a look at the thrills and spills of Matchday One.

The Singaporean side had taken a first half lead through Diego Lopes at the Jalan Besar Stadium but goals from Everton and Thitiphan Puangjan saw Bangkok United walk away with the points.

Wuhan looked set to mark their continental debut with a famous win after goals by Zhang Xiaobin and Davidson had given the reigning Chinese champions a 2-1 lead with the match in stoppage time.

Substitute Jose Kante, however, salvaged a point for defending champions Urawa of Japan in the fourth minute of added time.

The club from Saudi Arabia advanced from the play-offs with a 1-0 win over Tajikistan's Istiklol FC on Tuesday, with Youcef Belaïli converting a penalty in stoppage time to take Al Ahli into the group stage for the sixth consecutive year.

The Islamic Republic of Iran club prevailed 5-4 on penalties against Qatar’s Al Sailiya FC after 120 minutes saw the play-off tie end in a 0-0 draw at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium.

Goalkeeper Mahdi Rahmati was the hero for Shahr Khodro, producing a brilliant shootout save to deny countryman Karim Ansarifard before Saeid Sadeghi struck the decisive blow to take his team through.

The 31-year-old spoke exclusively to the-AFC.com following the play-off tie at Seoul World Cup Stadium and he reflected on the match, the importance of playing in the AFC Champions League, his favourite memories from the competition so far, and his hopes for 2020.

.

The former Islamic Republic of Iran national team forward saw Esteghlal score five goals against their hosts at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium to book their place in the group stage of the competition for the fourth consecutive year.

In the meantime, the AFC will closely monitor the situation before deciding further on the home matches of Chinese clubs on MD4, 5 and 6.

The decision, which was also made in conjunction with the competing clubs from the respective groups, is a precautionary measure to ensure the safety and well-being of all participating players and teams in view of the current coronavirus outbreak in the People’s Republic of China.

Despite Saeed Juma’s second-half strike ultimately deciding the tie, Al Ain dominated against the Uzbekistan club at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.

Having weathered a Kashima storm in the first half, Melbourne netted the tie's only goal on 54 minutes when Nabbout was on hand to fire home a deflected effort past Kwoun Sun-tae.

Custodian Lawrence Thomas then put on a goalkeeping clinic to deny the 2018 champions as the A-League side held out for a famous victory.

Istiklol had qualified to the play-off stage after stunning PFC Lokomotiv 1-0 in Tashkent in the Preliminary Round 2, while Al Ahli qualified as fourth placed in the 2018-19 Saudi Pro League.