At 18:00 Beijing time on the evening of April 17, 2024, the first leg of the AFC Champions League semifinals will start a civil war between East Asian teams. South Korea's Ulsan Hyundai will host Japan's Yokohama Marinos. It is worth mentioning that Ma Ning, a referee from China, will be the fourth official of this match. Who's going to be killed in this game? I'm going to give you some brief analysis of this game.
Ulsan Hyundai from the Korean K-League won the domestic league title last season with a huge margin of 12 points. In the new season, Ulsan Hyundai has 11 points in the league and is in third place in the standings. In the last round of the league, Ulsan Hyundai defeated Gangwon FC 4-0 at home to win two consecutive league games. Since the start of the league, Ulsan Hyundai has scored a total of 16 goals, and they are currently the team with the most goals in South Korea's K-League, and it can be said that Ulsan Hyundai's attacking strength is undoubted. They will also be keen to capitalise on home advantage and launch onslaught against opposition defences to establish an advantage in the first leg of the tie and head into the AFC Champions League final. In the match against Yokohama Marino, Ulsan Hyundai did not have any major injuries, and the whole team can respond with the strongest lineup.
Yokohama Mariner is a Japanese team that Chinese fans are more familiar with, and the reason why it is said is because Yokohama Mariner is in the same group as Shandong Taishan in this year's AFC Champions League knockout round, and has played Shandong Taishan 4 times in the knockout round and group stage, but unfortunately in these 4 games, Shandong Taishan lost all of them to their opponents. And this season's meritorious coach Muscat is also coached by Shanghai Port in the Chinese Super League. Compared with the home team Ulsan Hyundai with a full lineup, Yokohama Mariner's main substitute midfielder Kenta Inoue, main right-back Ryuta Koike are injured, and main left-back Katsu Nagado is also suspended.
Before this game, I didn't find a record of the two teams playing each other. However, I believe that many Chinese fans, like me, are looking forward to Ulsan Hyundai, who are playing at home, to shoulder the heavy responsibility of avenging Taishan and defeat Yokohama Mariners in the first leg of the AFC Champions League.