2017 AFC Champions League knockout stage

The 2017 AFC Champions League knockout stage was played from 22 May to 25 November 2017. ^[1] A total of 16 teams competed in the knockout stage to decide the champions of the 2017 AFC Champions League. ^[2]

Qualified teams

The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage advanced to the round of 16, with both West Region (Groups A–D) and East Region (Groups E–H) having eight qualified teams.

Region	Group	Winners	Runners-up
West Region	A	Al-Ahli	Esteghlal
	B	Lekhwiya	Esteghlal Khuzestan
	C	Al-Ain	Al-Ahli
	D	Al-Hilal	Persepolis
East Region	E	Kashima Antlers	Muangthong United
	F	Urawa Red Diamonds	Shanghai SIPG
	G	Kawasaki Frontale	Guangzhou Evergrande
	H	Jiangsu Suning	Jeju United

Format

In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the teams split into the two regions until the final. Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals would not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 11.3). ^[2]

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows. ^[1] Matches in the West Region were played on Mondays and Tuesdays, while matches in the East Region were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Round	First leg	Second leg
Round of 16	22–24 May 2017	29–31 May 2017
Quarter-finals	21–23 August 2017	11–13 September 2017
Semi-finals	26–27 September 2017	17–18 October 2017
Final	18 November 2017	25 November 2017

Bracket

The bracket of the knockout stage was determined as follows:

Round	Matchups
Round of 16	(Group winners host second leg) West Region Runner-up Group A vs. Winner Group C Runner-up Group C vs. Winner Group A Runner-up Group B vs. Winner Group D Runner-up Group D vs. Winner Group B East Region Runner-up Group E vs. Winner Group G Runner-up Group G vs. Winner Group E Runner-up Group F vs. Winner Group H Runner-up Group H vs. Winner Group F
Quarter-finals	(Matchups and order of legs decided by draw, involving four round of 16 winners each in West Region and East Region) West Region QF1 QF2 East Region QF3 QF4
Semi-finals	(Winners QF1 and QF3 host first leg, Winners QF2 and QF4 host second leg) West Region SF1: Winner QF1 vs. Winner QF2 East Region SF2: Winner QF3 vs. Winner QF4
Final	(Winner SF1 host first leg, Winner SF2 host second leg, as reversed from previous season's final) Winner SF1 vs. Winner SF2

The bracket was decided after the draw for the knockout stage, which was held on 6 June 2017, 16:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

	Round of 16						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	Esteghlal	1	1	2
	Al-Ain	0	6	6
							Al-Ain	0	0	0
							Al-Hilal	0	3	3
	Esteghlal Khuzestan	1	1	2
	Al-Hilal	2	2	4
													Al-Hilal	4	2	6
	West Region
													Persepolis	0	2	2
	Persepolis	0	1	1
	Lekhwiya	0	0	0
							Persepolis	2	3	5
							Al-Ahli	2	1	3
	Al-Ahli	1	3	4
	Al-Ahli	1	1	2
																			Al-Hilal	1	0	1
																			Urawa Red Diamonds	1	1	2
	Shanghai SIPG	2	3	5
	Jiangsu Suning	1	2	3
							Shanghai SIPG (p)	4	1	5 (5)
							Guangzhou Evergrande	0	5	5 (4)
	Guangzhou Evergrande (a)	1	1	2
	Kashima Antlers	0	2	2
													Shanghai SIPG	1	0	1
	East Region
													Urawa Red Diamonds	1	1	2
	Muangthong United	1	1	2
	Kawasaki Frontale	3	4	7
							Kawasaki Frontale	3	1	4
							Urawa Red Diamonds	1	4	5
	Jeju United	2	0	2
	Urawa Red Diamonds (a.e.t.)	0	3	3

Round of 16

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group from the same region, with the matchups determined by the group stage draw, and the group winners hosting the second leg. ^[3]

West Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Esteghlal	2–6	Al-Ain	1–0	1–6
Al-Ahli	4–2	Al-Ahli	1–1	3–1
Esteghlal Khuzestan	2–4	Al-Hilal	1–2	1–2
Persepolis	1–0	Lekhwiya	0–0	1–0

East Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Muangthong United	2–7	Kawasaki Frontale	1–3	1–4
Guangzhou Evergrande	2–2 (a)	Kashima Antlers	1–0	1–2
Shanghai SIPG	5–3	Jiangsu Suning	2–1	3–2
Jeju United	2–3	Urawa Red Diamonds	2–0	0–3 (a.e.t.)

West Region

22 May 2017 (2017-05-22)

20:45  UTC+4:30

Esteghlal	1–0	Al-Ain
Rezaei 90+2' (pen.)	Report

Azadi Stadium, Tehran

Attendance: 67,202

Referee: Fu Ming (China)

29 May 2017 (2017-05-29)

22:45  UTC+4

Al-Ain	6–1	Esteghlal
Caio 27', 33' O. Abdulrahman 49', 60' Lee Myung-joo 56' Al-Shamrani 75'	Report	Rezaei 83'

Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain

Attendance: 11,226

Referee: Ko Hyung-jin (South Korea)

Al-Ain won 6–2 on aggregate.

---

22 May 2017 (2017-05-22)

20:45  UTC+3

Al-Ahli	1–1	Al-Ahli
Asiri 38'	Report	Esmaeel 21'

King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah

Attendance: 17,323

Referee: Ali Sabah (Iraq)

29 May 2017 (2017-05-29)

23:00  UTC+4

Al-Ahli	1–3	Al-Ahli
Gyan 90+1' (pen.)	Report	Al-Jassim 18' Al-Mogahwi 24' Abdul-Amir 72' (pen.)

Al-Rashid Stadium, Dubai

Attendance: 3,993

Referee: Chris Beath (Australia)

Al-Ahli (KSA) won 4–2 on aggregate.

---

23 May 2017 (2017-05-23)

20:00  UTC+4

Esteghlal Khuzestan	1–2	Al-Hilal
Al-Hafith 42' (o.g.)	Report	Al-Zori 52' Carlos Eduardo 57'

Al-Seeb Stadium, Seeb (Oman) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 2,670

Referee: Ali Abdulnabi (Bahrain)

30 May 2017 (2017-05-30)

22:30  UTC+3

Al-Hilal	2–1	Esteghlal Khuzestan
Kharbin 16' Al-Dawsari 82'	Report	Nong 12'

Thani bin Jassim Stadium, Al Rayyan (Qatar) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 1,620

Referee: Jumpei Iida (Japan)

Al-Hilal won 4–2 on aggregate.

---

23 May 2017 (2017-05-23)

19:30  UTC+4:30

Persepolis	0–0	Lekhwiya
	Report

Azadi Stadium, Tehran

Attendance: 40 ^{[note 2]}

Referee: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)

30 May 2017 (2017-05-30)

22:00  UTC+3

Lekhwiya	0–1	Persepolis
	Report	Chico 24' (o.g.)

Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha

Attendance: 1,700

Referee: Ma Ning (China)

Persepolis won 1–0 on aggregate.

East Region

23 May 2017 (2017-05-23)

19:30  UTC+7

Muangthong United	1–3	Kawasaki Frontale
Teerasil 45+2'	Report	Nakamura 66' Kobayashi 69' Abe 89'

SCG Stadium, Nonthaburi

Attendance: 12,500

Referee: Khamis Al-Marri (Qatar)

30 May 2017 (2017-05-30)

19:00  UTC+9

Kawasaki Frontale	4–1	Muangthong United
Kobayashi 31' Hasegawa 32' Eduardo Neto 40' Rhayner 79'	Report	Teerasil 89'

Todoroki Athletics Stadium, Kawasaki

Attendance: 11,931

Referee: Alireza Faghani (Iran)

Kawasaki Frontale won 7–2 on aggregate.

---

23 May 2017 (2017-05-23)

20:00  UTC+8

Guangzhou Evergrande	1–0	Kashima Antlers
Paulinho 75'	Report

Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou

Attendance: 39,863

Referee: Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)

30 May 2017 (2017-05-30)

19:00  UTC+9

Kashima Antlers	2–1	Guangzhou Evergrande
Pedro Júnior 28' Kanazaki 90+1'	Report	Paulinho 55'

Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima

Attendance: 11,388

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

2–2 on aggregate. Guangzhou Evergrande won on away goals.

---

24 May 2017 (2017-05-24)

20:00  UTC+8

Shanghai SIPG	2–1	Jiangsu Suning
Hulk 33' (pen.) Ahmedov 45+1'	Report	Martínez 8'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 23,093

Referee: Mohanad Qasim Eesee Sarray (Iraq)

31 May 2017 (2017-05-31)

20:00  UTC+8

Jiangsu Suning	2–3	Shanghai SIPG
Hong Jeong-ho 75' Wu Xi 90+3'	Report	Elkeson 34' Yang Xiaotian 43' (o.g.) Hulk 90+4'

Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre, Nanjing

Attendance: 37,269

Referee: Fahad Al-Mirdasi (Saudi Arabia)

Shanghai SIPG won 5–3 on aggregate.

---

24 May 2017 (2017-05-24)

15:00  UTC+9

Jeju United	2–0	Urawa Red Diamonds
Toscano 7' Jin Seong-wook 90+2'	Report

Jeju Stadium, Jeju City

Attendance: 1,913

Referee: Aziz Asimov (Uzbekistan)

31 May 2017 (2017-05-31)

19:30  UTC+9

Urawa Red Diamonds	3–0 (a.e.t.)	Jeju United
Koroki 18' Lee 34' Moriwaki 114'	Report

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 19,149

Referee: Liu Kwok Man (Hong Kong)

Urawa Red Diamonds won 3–2 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 6 June 2017. In the quarter-finals, the four teams from the West Region played in two ties, and the four teams from the East Region played in two ties, with the matchups and order of legs decided by draw, without any seeding or country protection. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

West Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Al-Ain	0–3	Al-Hilal	0–0	0–3
Persepolis	5–3	Al-Ahli	2–2	3–1

East Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Shanghai SIPG	5–5 (5–4 p)	Guangzhou Evergrande	4–0	1–5 (a.e.t.)
Kawasaki Frontale	4–5	Urawa Red Diamonds	3–1	1–4

West Region

21 August 2017 (2017-08-21)

19:50  UTC+4

Al-Ain	0–0	Al-Hilal
	Report

Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain

Attendance: 21,223

Referee: Peter Green (Australia)

11 September 2017 (2017-09-11)

20:00  UTC+3

Al-Hilal	3–0	Al-Ain
Carlos Eduardo 42', 45+1', 74'	Report

King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh

Attendance: 42,146

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Al Hilal won 3–0 on aggregate.

---

22 August 2017 (2017-08-22)

20:00  UTC+4

Persepolis	2–2	Al-Ahli
Khalilzadeh 71' Mensha 84'	Report	Al Somah 2' Leonardo 58'

Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat (Oman) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 6,500

Referee: Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)

12 September 2017 (2017-09-12)

19:15  UTC+4

Al-Ahli	1–3	Persepolis
Al-Amri 52'	Report	Alipour 5' Mensha 83' (pen.) Taremi 90+4' (pen.)

Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 5,820

Referee: Ma Ning (China)

Persepolis won 5–3 on aggregate.

East Region

22 August 2017 (2017-08-22)

20:00  UTC+8

Shanghai SIPG	4–0	Guangzhou Evergrande
Hulk 39' (pen.) Wang Shenchao 45+1' Wu Lei 62', 65'	Report

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 36,503

Referee: Nawaf Shukralla (Bahrain)

12 September 2017 (2017-09-12)

20:00  UTC+8

Guangzhou Evergrande	5–1 (a.e.t.)	Shanghai SIPG
Alan 21', 35' Goulart 83', 90+1', 117' (pen.)	Report	Hulk 111'
Penalties
Goulart Alan Liao Lisheng Muriqui Zheng Zhi	4–5	Hulk Oscar Wu Lei Ahmedov Yu Hai

Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou

Attendance: 39,972

Referee: Alireza Faghani (Iran)

5–5 on aggregate. Shanghai SIPG won 5–4 on penalties.

---

23 August 2017 (2017-08-23)

19:00  UTC+9

Kawasaki Frontale	3–1	Urawa Red Diamonds
Kobayashi 33', 85' Elsinho 50'	Report	Muto 76'

Todoroki Athletics Stadium, Kawasaki

Attendance: 18,080

Referee: Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed (United Arab Emirates)

13 September 2017 (2017-09-13)

19:30  UTC+9

Urawa Red Diamonds	4–1	Kawasaki Frontale
Koroki 35' Ljubijankić 70' Rafael Silva 84' Takagi 86'	Report	Elsinho 19'

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 26,785

Referee: Fahad Al-Mirdasi (Saudi Arabia)

Urawa Red Diamonds won 5–4 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

In the semi-finals, the two quarter-final winners from the West Region played each other, and the two quarter-final winners from the East Region played each other, with the order of legs determined by the quarter-final draw. ^[4]

West Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Al-Hilal	6–2	Persepolis	4–0	2–2

East Region

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Shanghai SIPG	1–2	Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	0–1

West Region

26 September 2017 (2017-09-26)

20:00  UTC+4

Al-Hilal	4–0	Persepolis
Kharbin 31', 54', 81' Al-Shahrani 40'	Report

Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 11,321

Referee: Kim Jong-hyeok (South Korea)

17 October 2017 (2017-10-17)

20:00  UTC+4

Persepolis	2–2	Al-Hilal
Mensha 16', 61'	Report	Kharbin 30' (pen.), 76'

Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat (Oman) ^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 3,250

Referee: Ahmed Al-Kaf (Oman)

Al Hilal won 6–2 on aggregate.

East Region

27 September 2017 (2017-09-27)

20:00  UTC+8

Shanghai SIPG	1–1	Urawa Red Diamonds
Hulk 15'	Report	Kashiwagi 27'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 33,513

Referee: Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar)

18 October 2017 (2017-10-18)

19:30  UTC+9

Urawa Red Diamonds	1–0	Shanghai SIPG
Rafael Silva 12'	Report

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 44,375

Referee: Chris Beath (Australia)

Urawa Red Diamonds won 2–1 on aggregate.

Final

Main article: 2017 AFC Champions League Final

In the final, the two semi-final winners played each other, with the order of legs (first leg hosted by team from the West Region, second leg hosted by team from the East Region) reversed from the previous season's final. ^[4]

18 November 2017 (2017-11-18)

19:15  UTC+3

Al-Hilal	1–1	Urawa Red Diamonds
Kharbin 37'	Report	Rafael Silva 7'

King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh

Attendance: 59,136

Referee: Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)

25 November 2017 (2017-11-25)

19:15  UTC+9

Urawa Red Diamonds	1–0	Al-Hilal
Rafael Silva 88'	Report

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 57,727

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Urawa Red Diamonds won 2–1 on aggregate.

Note

1. Matches between teams from Iran and Saudi Arabia were played on neutral venues due to deterioration of Iran–Saudi Arabia relations.
2. The Persepolis v Lekhwiya match was played behind closed doors due to spectator misconduct during Persepolis's home match against Al-Wahda on 8 May 2017. ^[7]

References

1. "AFC Calendar of Competitions 2017" (PDF). AFC.
2. "2017 AFC Champions League Competition Regulations" (PDF). AFC.
3. "AFC Champions League 2017 Draw Mechanism" (PDF). AFC.
4. "AFC Champions League 2017: And then there were eight..." AFC. 5 June 2017.
5. "AFC Champions League 2017 - Official Draw". YouTube. 6 June 2017.
6. "AFC Champions League quarter-final ties confirmed". AFC. 6 June 2017.
7. "Persepolis versus Lekhwiya to be played behind closed doors". AFC. 17 May 2017.

External links

• AFC Champions League , the-AFC.com
• AFC Champions League 2017, stats.the-AFC.com