(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)
Published: Sun 15 Sep 2024, 1:23 PM
UAE club Al Ain launch the defence of their continental title against Qatar's Al Sadd on Monday as Hernan Crespo's side usher in a new higher-stakes era of regional club football with the revamped Asian Champions League Elite.
Crespo's side will be determined to hit the ground running on Monday Al Sadd despite the UAE domestic season still in its infancy stage.
While the Emirati club started their season with four points from two matches, history is against them as they are winless against sides from Qatar in their last six games on the continental stage.
Al Sadd, however, will go into the tie having lost 3-1 to Umm Salal on Friday in the Qatar Stars League, their second defeat in four matches.
The reigning Qatar champions have also not won their last five opening matches on the continental stage, with four of them ending in draws.
Al Ain defeated Yokohama F Marinos in May in the last final played under the previous format, with the new edition featuring a field trimmed to 24 participants from 40 and chasing a potential first prize that has tripled to $12 million.
The long-standing group phase, used in various forms since 2002, has been abandoned in favour of a new Swiss League system which splits the clubs into 12-team east and west Asian leagues, with each to play eight group games starting from Monday.
The league phase will continue until early February, with schedules determined by a computer-assisted draw held in Kuala Lumpur last month.
The first eight finishers in each league will advance to the knockout rounds, which will be played in March before the action moves into a centralised phase in Saudi Arabia for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, which will be held on May 4.
Al Ain overcame the odds to win last year's competition ahead of the newly enriched club sides of Saudi Arabia, with Crespo masterminding victories over big-spending Al-Nassr - home to Cristiano Ronaldo - and Al Hilal in their run to the final.
The Emiratis will meet both of those clubs again in the league phase of the 2024-25 edition, as well as a third Saudi side, Al Ahli, and Qatar's Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan, Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan and Iraq's Al Shorta.
Al Ain's hopes of becoming only the fifth club to retain the title were boosted by retaining the services of Moroccan striker Soufiane Rahimi, whose tournament-leading 13 goals were instrumental in his team's success last season.
Yokohama F Marinos are among the 12 clubs in the eastern half of the draw and start their campaign against South Korea's Gwangju FC on Tuesday with Harry Kewell, who led the Japanese team to the final in May, long gone from the head coach's role.
The Australian and the Marinos parted company in July after a poor run of form left the team well adrift of the J-League title race. He has been replaced on an interim basis by Kewell's ex-assistant John Hutchinson.
Former champions Ulsan HD and Pohang Steelers, both from South Korea, headline the eastern half of the draw, which also features Chinese trio Shanghai Port, Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan as well as Japanese champions Vissel Kobe.
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