Thanks given, ambitious aims, and supporters praised all feature as the-AFC.com talks to those involved in the latest edition of the Continent's most presitigious competition.

Urawa Red Diamonds striker Kenyu Suigmoto was on target for his first ever goal in the AFC Champions League in their Round of 16 first leg tie on Wednesday to earn this week's top accolade.

It was, however, a bittersweet achievement for the 26-year-old as his first-half header was followed up by a pair of strikes from visitors Ulsan Hyundai in a 2-1 defeat.

Nevertheless, Sugimoto's performance was an impressive one. His goal was nominated for Goal of the Week and his all-round game was excellent with a passing accuracy of 91.3% the stand-out statistic. He was awarded a 7.7 rating to lead the Toyota Player of the Week standings.

Another J.League player, Serginho (below) of Kashima Antlers, took second place in the rankings as he scored the only goal in their 1-0 win over countrymen Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Ulsan had not won away in the competition in more than two years but put in an assured performance at Saitama Stadium and, after falling behind, leveled before the interval through Joo Min-kyu before substitute Hwang Il-su struck a late winner. 

The victory means the Korean side now must only avoid defeat at home – where they have won all three of their games to date – to progress to the quarter-finals for the first time since winning the competition in 2012.

The first leg of the Round of 16 pitted the champions of China PR and Korea Republic against each other and it took Moon less than a minute to open the scoring and silence the home support inside Shanghai Stadium.

With the outside of his right foot, Lim clipped a pinpoint delivery over the top of the Shanghai defence which Moon latched onto before lifting the ball over Yan Junling to break the deadlock before carrying out one of the more unique celebrations the competition has seen this season.

Sanfrecce had entered the tie at Kashima Soccer Stadium on the back of a five-match winning run in the Continental tournament, but on 24 minutes the hosts' Brazilian star Serginho rediscovered his golden touch at this phase of the competition to net his sixth goal in seven knockout stage appearances.

The away side responded to going behind and would ultimately dominate possesion (60 percent to 40 percent) as well as have more efforts on goal than their hosts in the match, but they were unable to make their chances count.

The late sending off of midfielder Sho Inagaki also compounded matters on a difficult night for Morishima and his teammates.

The clash at Kashima Soccer Stadium paired the two sides against Japanese opposition for the first time ever in the Continental competition and it was Sanfrecce who went into the game as the form team having won five in a row in the group stage.

But in a closely contested match it was defending champions Kashima who gained the upper hand after Brazilian Serginho scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half following excellent work from Doi.