AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25: Central Coast Mariners ...
Australian football club Central Coast Mariners have been drawn in the East region of the AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25 season on Friday.
Central Coast Mariners will play three teams each from the Republic of China – Shanghai Port FC, Shandong Taishan FC and Shanghai Shenhua FC – and Japan – Vissel Kobe, Yokohama F. Marinos and Kawasaki Frontale.
The A-League club will also face Thailand’s Buriram United and Malaysia’s Johor Darul Ta’azim in the East region phase.
Central Coast Mariners, who qualified for the inaugural season of the AFC Champions League Elite after winning the A-League Premiership, will take on Johor Darul Ta’zim, Buriram United, Yokohama F. Marinos and Shanghai Shenhua on home soil in Gosford, New South Wales.
Matches against Shanghai Port, Shandong Taishan, Vissel Kobe and Kawasaki Frontale will be held away from home in China and Japan, respectively.
The Mariners made the cut for the AFC Champions League Elite season by winning the A-League title. However, they would have also qualified as the AFC Cup 2023-24 winners.
Yokohama F. Marinos finished runners-up in the AFC Champions League 2023-24 season after losing to Al Ain FC of the UAE 6-3 on aggregate in a two-legged final. Pohang Steelers of the Republic of Korea, meanwhile, are three-time champions and also finished runners-up in 2021. Only Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia have won more titles.
Western Sydney Wanderers are the only Australian club to have won the AFC Champions League title. They lifted the trophy in 2014.
Mark Jackson’s side is entering Asia’s top-level competition for the sixth time with their best run so far recorded in 2013 when they reached the round of 16 stage.
The AFC Champions League Elite is introducing a new format this year. Instead of the previous setup where four teams formed a group and played each other home and away, the competition will now feature a league phase format.
The East and West phases consist of 12 teams each and each team will play eight matches in this phase - four home and four away. The top eight teams from each zone will make it to the round of 16, which will be held in March.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be held in Saudi Arabia between April and May. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr and Neymar’s Al-Hilal could potentially be involved in the action during the knockout stages. The AFC Champions League Elite 2024-25 final will be held on May 4 next year.
