Think of a technical role in a football organisation and Gary Philips is likely to have some first-hand knowledge of it. Men or women, clubs or national teams, coaching players or educating coaches; he has seen and done it all.

A former title-winning player and head coach in top-flight men's football in Australia, he has gone on to build an extensive and varied résumé featuring roles in Malaysia, Vietnam and Tonga, to name a few, but the biggest challenge is arguably still to come.

His football journey took him Nepal in 2019, when he became the All Nepal Football Association’s Technical Director; a role he still holds but one which, since February, comes with the added responsibility of leading the women's national team in their bid to secure an unprecedented qualification for Asia’s premier women’s competition.

Some are AFC Champions League veterans, some made their debut in the competition, some have been eliminated while others will continue to challenge for the title of the 2021 AFC Champions League top scorer, but what they all have in common is that their 26 goals combined were some of the finest highlights of the first part of the competition.

Returns, history making, star goalkeepers and eyes on the prize all feature as the-AFC.com reviews our What They Said series from the few weeks of action.

Describing every AFC Champions League match as a learning curve, the young goalkeeper said the experience gained was tremendous.

FC Goa went into their AFC Champions League debut with the odds stacked against them but more than held their own in a Group E that had two-time runnersup Persepolis FC of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Al Wahda FSCC of the UAE and Qatar's Al Rayyan.

The venue – the home ground the Kyrgyz Republic national team – was in action for Kyrgyz Premier League matches on Friday and Saturday night, paving the way for Group E of the continental tournament, which begins on Friday.

The virtual meeting was organised for Growing Member Associations (MAs) with more than 70 women football administrators, coaches and tutors gaining valuable insights on the promotion of the women’s game.

The win secured Al Hilal top spot in the standings, having gone into the match level on points with Al Shabab. The 2019 AFC Champions League winners moved to 51 points, with four matches remaining.