New season's main stage starts today. Competition is under the new name, it is now called AFC Champions League Elite. AFC Cup is rebranded to AFC Champions League Two. Also, new format will be used. 24 teams in two groups, eight matches, each team plays eight other teams once. Top eight qualify from each group, and final eight tournament will be played in - ta da - Saudi Arabia. Al-Ain is the title holder and they qualified after winning last edition (defeated both Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal), otherwise they would not take part in this year's tournament as they had bad domestic season. https://www.flashscore.com/football/asia/afc-champions-league/standings/#/4hWTXH4p/table/overall
Lol really? Don't know why they can't do 2-legged ties. Anyway... I may go to Al-Rayyan v Al-Hilal game tomorrow. I assume Neymar is not playing but might be interesting still to see Mitro and co...
And not only that. It is about to happen in next five seasons. If they host well this and next year's edition, they will get to host another three editions.
Wound up going to Al Rayyan v Al Hilal. This is probably my one chance to see Hilal despite no Neymar. In the end the foreign legion proved decisive lol as it was a Serb, a Portuguese, and 2 Brazilians who got all the goals. Honestly, I left at halftime as the score was 3-0 and I have a lot of work to do tonight, and wanted to get home for the potential Yank-derby of Juve v PSV. I think this is the first time I left a match at halftime since 2006 when I had to leave a Lokomotiv Moscow game in Russia but that was to catch the metro to the airport to get a flight to Dubai - a better excuse. Anyway, here are some highlights:
They will play. https://aawsat.com/الرياضة/رياضة-عربية/5071444-النجمة-اللبناني-إصرار-على-كأس-التحدي-رغم-أهوال-الحرب
meh another Al Rayyan defeat this time at home to Al Ahli. Rayyan slump to the bottom after 3 straight defeats while the Saudi teams dominate. A really late kickoff, 9pm on a weeknight but still a disappointing turnout on the night. Surprised more Algerians didn't show to see Mahrez play at least... I was a bit turned off about getting home at midnight but as I'm a gambling man thought I'd at least see Ivan Toney play...
AFC Challenge Cup also kicked their first campaign off this weekend. Worth to mention - Turkmenistan champion Arkadag debuts in Asia after 59 games won out of 59 games played in their history (50 league + 9 cup games). They defeated Maziya in first game, and at this very moment they are 2-0 up against Kyrgyz side Abdish Ata.
Just realized this may be the first time I've ever seen Ronaldo score from open play... but there it is... 2 goals from him as Al Nassr defeats Al Gharafa 3-1