The 2013 AFC Champions League final was the final match of the 2013 AFC Champions League, the thirty-second round of the top grade Asian club football tournament. It was organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was the eleventh round under the title of AFC Champions League.
The final match was contested in a two-legged home-and-away format between FC Seoul of South Korea and Guangzhou Evergrande of China. The first leg was hosted by FC Seoul at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on 26 October 2013, while the second leg was hosted by Guangzhou Evergrande at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou on 9 November 2013. The winner earned the right to represent the AFC at the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco, beginning at the quarterfinal stage.
Qualified teams TeamPrevious finals appearances (bold indicates winners) FC Seoul2002 Guangzhou EvergrandeNone
Outcome The first leg ended with a 2-all draw. Goals were scored by Sergio Escudero and Dejan Damjanović for FC Seoul, and Elkeson and Gao Lin for Guangzhou Evergrande. The second leg ended with a 1-all draw. Goals in this game were made by Elkeson for Guangzhou Evergrande, and Dejan Damjanović for FC Seoul.
Guangzhou Evergrande won the match and was awarded the premiership. This was their first premiership win on the away goals rule.
Venues After the 2012 AFC Champions League Final took place at the home of one of the finalists, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced that the following year's competition final would be contested in a two-legged home-and-away format. It was the first time since 2008 that the AFC had adopted such an arrangement.
FC Seoul's home venue, the Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul, is a 66,806 seated stadium located in the capital city. It is also the home ground of the Korea Republic national football team, and was the opening venue of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. It is the third largest soccer stadium in Asia, after Azadi Stadium and Salt Lake Stadium.
Guangzhou Evergrande's home venue, Tianhe Stadium, is a 58,500 seated stadium located in the city of Guangzhou. It hosted the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup and the football matches of the 2010 Asian Games.
In the history of the competition, five finals have been held in South Korea, but this was the first one in Seoul.
Background Neither FC Seoul nor Guangzhou Everard had won the AFC club premiership before. The predecessors of FC Seoul, the Anyang LG Cheetahs, finished as runners-up of the 2001–02 Asian Club Championship. It was also the sixteenth time a Korean club had reached the final and the fourth time a Chinese club had done so.
Choi Yong-Soo was the manager of an experienced Korean side. The Korean side had won the AFC Champions League premiership four times in the previous five years. FC Seoul had represented Korea in the final games for five consecutive seasons. They had been defeated in the quarter-finals in 2009 and 2011.
Guanghzhou's head coach from May 2012 was Marcello Lippi. Lippi had won the UEFA Champions League with Juventus in 1996 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup with the Italy national football team. Guangzhou won the Chinese Super League premiership in 2010 and 2011 and had reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 AFC Champions League. Guangzhou, like FC Seoul, had lost just once en route to the final, having scored 14 goals in their last four games. Choi had the full Italian squad at his disposal. The last time China had won the premiership was in 1990 with the Liaoning team. In 1998, Dalian Wanda had lost the premiership to the Pohang Steelers.
Road to final
Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first.
FC SeoulRound Guangzhou EvergrandeByeQualifying play-offByeOpponentResultGroup stageOpponentResult Jiangsu Sainty5–1 (H)Matchday 1 Urawa Red Diamonds3–0 (H) Buriram United0–0 (A)Matchday 2 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors1–1 (A) Vegalta Sendai2–1 (H)Matchday 3 Muangthong United4–0 (H) Vegalta Sendai0–1 (A)Matchday 4 Muangthong United4–1 (A) Jiangsu Sainty2–0 (A)Matchday 5 Urawa Red Diamonds2–3 (A) Buriram United2–2 (H)Matchday 6 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors0–0 (H)Group E winnerFinal standingsGroup F winnerOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd legKnock-out stageOpponentAgg.1st leg2nd leg Beijing Guoan3–10–0 (A)3–1 (H)Round of 16 Central Coast Mariners5–12–1 (A)3–0 (H) Al-Ahli2–11–1 (A)1–0 (H)Quarterfinals Lekhwiya6–12–0 (H)4–1 (A) Esteghlal4–22–0 (H)2–2 (A)Semifinals Kashiwa Reysol8–14–1 (A)4–0 (H)
Rules The final was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. This was a change from the previous year when the final had been played as a single game. The order of the legs was decided by a draw. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner, if necessary.
Match details First leg Team news FC Seoul's squad featured veterans of its previous campaigns, and a Colombian midfielder, Mauricio Molina. Molina had won the 2010 AFC Champions League premiership title as part of Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. FC Seoul was without its defender, Cha Du-ri, for the first leg of the final due to his suspension. A veteran Brazilian, Adilson dos Santos, replaced him. dos Santos was expected to play at right-back.
Guanghzhou's Brazilian striker, Muriqui, was the leading scorer in the competition. He had made 13 goals prior to the final. Dario Conca and Elkeson, both from South America, had also made significant contributions. Lippi confirmed that right-back Zhang Linpeng and midfielder Zhao Xuri had recovered from injury.
Summary
55,501 patrons attended the first game at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. Sergio Escudero for FC Seoul, scored in the eleventh minute of the match. However, fifteen minutes before half time, Elkeson (who had scored four goals in the previous four games) scored at the equalizer.
The China international, Gao Lin, then added to the Brazilian's header a minute before the hour mark, and despite Montenegrin striker Damjanovic equalizing with seven minutes remaining, Guangzhou headed into the next month's second leg in pole position. Guangzhou came close to a breakthrough after eight minutes as Dario Conca's shot was palmed back out towards the penalty spot, only for Huang Bowen to blaze over the crossbar. But just two minutes later, FC Seoul took the lead as Guangzhou's defence failed to deal with a quickly taken free-kick and Escudero held off Feng Xiaoting before coolly beating the goalkeeper, Zeng Cheng, with a low shot from just inside the penalty area.
At twenty minutes, Gao made a goal for Guangzhou: his angled strike from inside the area was kicked away by FC Seoul goal keeper, Kim Yong-Dae, before Elkeson fired over from Zhang Linpeng's cross. Guangzhou was back on level terms 16 minutes before half-time as Huang's left wing corner was met by the unmarked Elkeson and the Brazilian's downward header from the edge of the six yard area gave Kim little chance despite a despairing dive from the FC Seoul goalkeeper. Guangzhou finished the first half strongly and almost completed the comeback in stoppage time as Kim had to be on his toes to push a rising strike from Conca away at his near post.
FC Seoul striker Damjanovic made a strike at goal seven minutes into the second half. One minute before the hour mark, Guangzhou took the lead as FC Seoul's defence failed to fully clear the danger inside their penalty area and Sun Xiang's low drilled cross was diverted into the back of the net at the near post when Gao Lin poked it in. Damjanovic again went close to making another goal for FC Seoul after 66 minutes, only to be denied by a last-ditch block by Sun Xiang before Koh Myong-Jin fired into the side netting.
Guangzhou should have added a third point with seven minutes remaining as Elkeson fired a tame effort straight at Kim from a promising position. FC Seoul took full advantage less than a minute later as substitute Yun Il-Lok found Escudero in space on the left and Yun's cut back found Damjanovic, who calmly swept the ball past Zeng from inside the area.
The last play of the match fell to FC Seoul as a counter-attack quickly established itself between FC Seoul's striking partnership of Damjanovic and Escudero. However, Damjanovic's shot was blocked by Zeng Cheng before the whistle blew.
Details
Formation: 4–4–2 GK 1 Kim Yong-dae DF 2 Choi Hyo-jin DF 4 Kim Ju-young DF 6 Kim Jin-kyu DF 8 Adilson dos Santos MF 11 Mauricio Molina MF 16 Ha Dae-sung (c) MF 21 Go Yo-han MF 22 Koh Myong-jin FW 9 Sergio Escudero FW 10 Dejan DamjanovićSubstitutes GK 31 Yu Sang-hun DF 7 Kim Chi-woo MF 17 Choi Hyun-tae MF 24 Yun Il-lok MF 29 Lee Sang-hyeob MF 33 Choi Tae-uk FW 18 Kim Hyun-sungManager Choi Yong-sooFormation: 4–2–3–1 GK 19 Zeng Cheng DF 5 Zhang Linpeng DF 6 Feng Xiaoting DF 28 Kim Young-gwon DF 32 Sun Xiang MF 10 Zheng Zhi (c) MF 11 Muriqui MF 15 Darío Conca MF 16 Huang Bowen MF 29 Gao Lin FW 9 ElkesonSubstitutes GK 22 Li Shuai DF 4 Zhao Peng DF 33 Rong Hao MF 7 Feng Junyan MF 8 Qin Sheng MF 37 Zhao Xuri FW 30 Yang ChaoshengManager Marcello Lippi AFC Man of the Match: Dejan Damjanović (FC Seoul) Fans' Man of the Match: Sergio Escudero (FC Seoul)
Assistant referees: Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan) Bakhadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan) Fourth official: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)
Statistics
+First half FC Seoul Guangzhou EvergrandeGoals scored 1 1Total shots 3 5Shots on target 2 3Saves 2 1Ball possession 47% 53%Corner kicks 1 2Fouls committed 11 11Offsides 0 1Yellow cards 0 1Red cards 0 0
+Second half FC Seoul Guangzhou EvergrandeGoals scored 1 1Total shots 11 3Shots on target 7 2Saves 1 6Ball possession 52% 48%Corner kicks 6 4Fouls committed 10 3Offsides 1 0Yellow cards 1 0Red cards 0 0
+Overall FC Seoul Guangzhou EvergrandeGoals scored 2 2Total shots 14 8Shots on target 9 5Saves 3 7Ball possession 50% 50%Corner kicks 7 6Fouls committed 21 14Offsides 1 1Yellow cards 1 1Red cards 0 0
Reactions After the first game, the FC Seoul head coach, Choi Yong-Soo, was confident his team could secure the win needed in the second leg to claim the AFC Champions League premiership. He said, "It was a tough match, as you expect to see in the AFC Champions League final. We always prepare to win but we drew in our home game. But we have an opportunity to win the game in the second leg; we're never going to give up and we can do it."
Marcello Lippi rued a string of missed opportunities. He said, "The match was well-fought throughout. The game was quite balanced between both teams. It’s been a period when we’ve had a couple of players out injured and this was their first match for 20 days. But FC Seoul are a good team and they attack well and Damjanovic defends the ball well with his body."
Second leg Team news At the time of the second game, the Guangzhou Evergrande squad was fit. Lippi left Muriqui and right-back Zhang Linpeng out of his side for the Chinese Super League crown 5-0 win over Wuhan Zall. Lippi said, "We are all ready. All of our injured players are ready for tomorrow’s match."
For Seoul FC, right-back Cha Du-ri returned after missing the first game due to suspension. The left-back Kim Chi-Woo was injured. The former Germany-based defender, Cha, was recalled to the side for the win over Suwon at the expense of Choi Hyo-Jin. The veteran Brazilian defender, Adilson, retained his place ahead of Kim. The midfielder, Yun Il-Lok, started ahead of Go Yo-Han in the win over Suwon.
Summary
Guangzhou Evergrande became the first Chinese club to win the AFC Champions League premiership since the creation of the League format in 2002. Guangzhou secured the premiership on the away goals ruling after a 1-1 draw at Tianhe Stadium, securing an aggregate 3-3 over the two legs of the final against FC Seoul.