After a third-place finish in the 2017 J.League, Cerezo secured their third appearance at the competition, where they reached the quarter-finals in 2011 and the Round of 16 three years later.

In 2017, domestic rivals Urawa became the first side from Japan to win the AFC Champions League since Cerezo’s neighbours Gamba Osaka claimed the title in 2008 and the forward feels his side can build on that success.

The Brazilian got the ball rolling for the home side, converting from close range after a Junya Ito cut-back in the 51st minute, before making it 2-0 with his second after a wonderful run 11 minutes later.

Ito then made sure of Kashiwa’s fourth AFC Champions League appearance with a cool finish from inside the area in the 89th minute.

In one of the most stunning signings in recent K-League history, Dejan Damjanovic - one of Korean football's all-time top scorers - left FC Seoul, his club of eight seasons, to join fierce rivals Suwon Samsung Bluewings.

Ahead of Tuesday's AFC Champions League Play-off with FLC Thanh Hoa, the Montenegrin spoke to the-AFC.com about the reasons behind his controversial switch and gave his thoughts on this year's AFC Champions League.

Q: Hi Dejan, how are you and the team doing ahead of the match against FLC Thanh Hoa?

I think we are OK. We just got back from Jeju last night and we are finalising our preparations for Tuesday night. We know how important this game is and we need to be very careful because it’s our first game of the season. Nevertheless, I’m confident we'll put on a good performance.

While the margin of victory was comfortable for the Japanese side in the end, the game was finely poised for long spells and on another day things could well have gone very differently.