Taishan Evening News Niu Zhiming
On January 17, the results of the 2022 AFC Champions League group stage draw were released, and Shandong Taishan was divided with Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds and Singapore's Lion City Mariners, and the third opponent was the winner of South Korea's Daegu FC and Thailand's Buriram United. According to the schedule, the AFC Champions League group stage will be held from April 15 to May 1, and whether the Taishan team will arrange the main lineup to play in the AFC Champions League depends on the schedule of the new season of the Chinese Super League.
The Taishan team returned to the AFC Champions League as the champion of the Chinese Super League, and in history, the best result of the Taishan team was to reach the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League. Nowadays, Taishan has the opportunity to make new breakthroughs in the AFC Champions League, but considering the impact of the epidemic and other factors, Taishan, like other Chinese Super League teams, faces greater challenges in playing in the AFC Champions League, especially the group stage of the tournament system, which makes the participation of various teams encounter difficulties.
In the 2021 AFC Champions League, Harbor was out of the qualifiers, Guangzhou and Guoan both arranged reserve players to play, and the result was that the two teams only scored 1 point, and the group stage was 1 draw and 11 losses, and the results were bad. Today, the four teams of the Chinese Super League have qualified for the AFC Champions League, taishan, Shanghai Harbor and Guangzhou have directly entered the main tournament, and Changchun Yatai has played in the qualifiers. After the draw, Taishan team was divided with Japan Cup champion Urawa Red Diamonds and Singapore League champion Lion City Mariners, and the other team had to pass the qualification round, and the 3rd Daegu FC of the Korean League competed with Thai league runner-up Buriram United for group stage qualification. If Daegu FC is successfully promoted, Group F will be a situation in which the three teams of China, Japan and South Korea compete for the qualification of the group.
Since the expansion of the AFC Champions League last season, the 20 teams in the East Asian zone have been divided into 5 groups, each of which has directly qualified for the first group, and 3 groups with better results have qualified for the second place in the East Asian zone. If the Taishan team wants to qualify from the group, it must go all out to get the first place in the group, Urawa Red Diamonds is a direct competitor, and the potential Daegu FC is also very strong. According to the schedule, Taishan will play the winners of Daegu FC and Buriram United in the first round, Urawa Red Diamonds in the second round, Lion City Mariners in the third and fourth rounds, Daegu FC and Buriram United in the fifth round against the winners of Urawa Red Diamonds. The group stage is scheduled to be held from April 15 to May 1, and the schedule of 17 days and 6 matches is very dense, and the specific competition location has not yet been determined, and it must be determined by bidding after the group draw.
For the Tarzans, if the main lineup is arranged, the goal is definitely to qualify from the group, the first two games of the group game will be very critical, and the back-to-back game against the Lion City Mariners is to get 6 points at full strength. If the Tarzan team can't arrange the main player to play, then the two-legged game against the Lion City Mariners is also a good opportunity to grab points, and as for the urawa Red Diamonds and potential Daegu FC, it is still very difficult to win.
Today, The Taishan team and the Harbor, the Guangzhou team and the Changchun Yatai team have to wait for the determination of the Chinese Super League schedule. If the 2022 Chinese Super League starts in April, it will be difficult for the Chinese Super League team to arrange the main players to play in the AFC Champions League. If the Chinese Super League is arranged to start in June, the Chinese Super League team is still very likely to arrange the main force to play in the AFC Champions League, first strive for the group qualification, and then pursue better results.