Vietnam's outstanding performance in the round of 12 made us marvel at the rapid rise of Southeast Asian football, and with it, the AFC Champions League also ushered in great changes. In the new season of the AFC Champions League, the weak performance of the Chinese Super League youth army can be said to be expected, but no one expected that Southeast Asian teams will rise rapidly, not only squeezing out the Chinese Super League teams, but even last season's J League champion Kawasaki Striker and K League runner-up Ulsan Hyundai were eliminated. As the representative of Hong Kong football, Jiezhi team almost won the right to qualify at the last minute.
The final round of the AFC Champions League Group J was played by Team Jiezhi against the Kobe Victory Ship. Before this round, The Team was second in the group with 6 points, one point behind the first-place Kobe team. Due to the early withdrawal of SIPG in the same group, Chiang Rai United only accumulated 1 point in 4 matches, and Jiezhi and Kobe have in fact locked in the top two of the group in advance. However, they also have to decide who is the first in the group through the final round of PK, because the top of the group directly advances to the knockout round.
In the 43rd minute of the first half, Jason Bal took a penalty in the penalty area, and Rincon easily scored to break the deadlock for Kobe. In half-time, Rei Ozaki was fouled for handball, the referee decisively awarded a penalty, and Deyang scored steadily to make the score 1-1.
In the 86th minute of the second half, Yoshiki Muto scored another goal for Kobe, rewriting the score to 2-1. Just when everyone thought that Kobe would win the kill, there was a dramatic first act of the game. In the 91st minute, Jasper's corner kick from the left was sent to the penalty area, and Barna, who had previously delivered the penalty, jumped high in the penalty area to head the ball into the top left corner. 2-2, the Jay Chi team stubbornly snatched back a point from the opponent's hand. It was these 1 points that allowed the Team to make history and reach the AFC Champions League knockout round for the first time.
After all four rounds of the AFC Champions League, Jasper scored 7 points, ranking second in the group. Due to SIPG's exit, teams in the Eastern Division of the AFC Champions League this season will have to deduct their finish with the last place when calculating the rankings. The result was that the top 5 groups of Daegu, Baton United, Yokohama (or Jeonbuk), Johor and Kobe, plus the 3 best groups with 7 points, 2nd place Urawa, Jeonbuk (or Yokohama), and Jiezhi advanced to the East Zone Knockout Round.
In this way, the Japanese league champion Kawasaki Striker, who only scored only 5 points in Group I, was eliminated, while the runner-up of the K League in the same group, Ulsan Hyundai, who scored only 4 points, was also eliminated, and replaced by the two top two in Southeast Asia: Thailand's Baton United and Malaysia's Johor, as well as Hong Kong's Jiezhi. Jie Zhi also replaced the Chinese Super League team and became China's "face" in the AFC Champions League.