Man of The Match Lee Seung-gi struck on the volley to fire the Koreans in front nine minutes before the break and Brazilian striker Gustavo converted from the spot seven minutes after the restart to cement their victory.

Substitute Ekanit Panya pulled one back for Chiangrai United, who could have equalised minutes later as Bill rounded off the goalkeeper but could not find the back of the net. Coach Kim’s men defended resiliently to hold on to their lead until the final whistle and walk away with the three points.

The Singaporean Premier League runners-up showed no fear against a richly experienced Gamba Osaka, playing proactively and keeping 58 percent of possession in a match that ended 2-0 in the Japanese side’s favour on Friday.

Patric opened the scoring with a 26th-minute header, before his fellow Brazilian Leandro Pereira added a second two minutes from time, finally making the points safe after a determined Tampines had remained well in the contest.

Yoichiro Kakitani opened the scoring for Nagoya with a fine strike in the first half before goals from substitute Mateus put the game beyond Pohang's reach.

Nagoya lead the Group G standings with six points, three ahead of Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim, who edged Ratchaburi FC of Thailand 1-0 to sit ahead of Pohang on goal difference

Leandro Velazquez came to Johor Darul Ta’zim’s rescue when he scored a spectacular goal to give the Malaysian champions their first win of the 2021 campaign.

On opposite sides of the continent, not one, but two clubs from the Philippines Football League will play their first ever AFC Champions League matches on Saturday, with United City facing off with Beijing FC in Tashkent, while Kaya FC-Iloilo will meet BG Pathum United more than 4,000 kilometres away in Thailand.

While the Philippines national team made history of its own by reaching the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, these are uncharted waters in club football.

Never before has even one Filipino club reached the group stage – and not since Pasay City’s 1995 participation in the former Asian Club Championship have any appeared at the equivalent level - but as can often be the case at this time of the year in the archipelago, when it rains, it pours.

The 12 went through extremely challenging times to advance to the final round, with the two group winners and runners-up to join hosts Qatar in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Finals while the third-placed teams from the two groups will advance to the Confederation Playoff, with the winners moving into the Inter-Confederation Playoff.

Ahead of the draw, the-AFC.com retraces how the 12 teams booked their places from the second round of qualifying. We kick off our series by taking a look at Group A.

The 12 went through extremely challenging times to advance to the final round, with the two group winners and runners-up to join hosts Qatar in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Finals while the third-placed teams from the two groups will advance to the Confederation Playoff, with the winners moving into the Inter-Confederation Playoff.

Ahead of the draw, the-AFC.com retraces how the 12 sides booked their places from the second round of qualifying. Having taken a look at Group A, we review Group B in the latest installment.