AFC Champions League
Twenty games in 10 groups across the continent took centre stage between Monday and Wednesday. With a closer look at the facts and stats that caught the eye, the-AFC.com looks back at the week in numbers.
Win, win, win
#ACL - Group C | AGMK FC (UZB) 1-3 Sepahan SC (IRN)
In 20 games on Matchday Three, not a single one ended level with 20 winners and 20 losers emerging from the latest round of fixtures.
In the West, there were nine home wins, with Sepahan’s victory in Uzbekistan against AGMK the only away triumph. It was even in the East, meanwhile, with five home victories and five away wins.
Five-star Hamdallah
Abderrazak Hamdallah’s 94th-minute winner for Al Ittihad against Air Force Club means the Moroccan striker became the first player to score for five different clubs in the AFC Champions League.
The 32-year-old scored his first goal in 2015 for Guangzhou R&F, away to Gamba Osaka, before heading West where he netted for Qatari duo El Jaish and Al Rayyan and then Saudi clubs Al Nassr and Al Ittihad.
Comeback kings
Making their first appearance in the competition since 2007, Bangkok United – formerly Bangkok University – have made the perfect start, winning all three games to top Group F with nine points.
Incredibly, their three victories have all come after falling behind, with Lion City Sailors, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and, most recently, Kitchee SC all taking the lead against the resilient Thai side before succumbing to defeat.
Hat-trick heroes
Aleksandar Mitrovic continued his fine goalscoring form for Al Hilal with his hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Mumbai City seeing the Serbian striker move to the top of the scoring charts with four goals.
The other player to net a hat-trick was Baghdad Bounedjah in Al Sadd’s 6-0 win over Al Faisaly. It was the 2018 top scorer’s first goal in the competition since April 2021 and his first-ever continental treble.
Golden oldie
At 43 years old, three months and three days, Hideomi Yamamoto became one of the oldest players to appear in the AFC Champions League when the veteran defender appeared as a second-half substitute in Ventforet Kofu’s 2-0 loss against Zhejiang FC.
In recent times, only Al Ahli Saudi’s Hussein Abdulghani and Tampines Rovers’ Daniel Bennett have appeared at an older age. The difference, however, is that Yamamoto – who’s been at Ventforet for two decades – was making his very first appearance in the tournament.
Chinese joy
It was a fine week for the Chinese clubs in the AFC Champions League with all three recording victories in their Matchday Three encounters.
Shandong Taishan’s 2-0 win at Incheon United saw them move to the top of Group G, while first wins of the campaign for Zhejiang and Wuhan Three Towns – against Ventforet and Hanoi FC respectively – kept their knockout round qualification hopes alive.
Flying full-backs
Mitrovic may have stolen the headlines with his hat-trick for Al Hilal but the full-backs had a huge part to play in all six of the goals.
Left-back Mohammed Al Burayk created three goals – as well as scoring one – and now leads the assists charts with four, while right-back Saud Abdulhamid created two as the pair proved hugely influential from wide.
One-way traffic
It may have taken Yokohama F. Marinos until the 72nd minute to finally get their second goal in a 3-0 win over the Philippines’ Kaya FC-Iloilo, but the J1 League side were in complete control.
Yokohama had 82 percent of the possession, the highest in the competition so far this season, beating the 81 percent posted by Al Nassr against FC Istiklol on Matchday Two.
