2018 AFC Champions League final

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2018 AFC Champions League Final
Event	2018 AFC Champions League
	on aggregate
First leg
Date	3 November 2018
Venue	Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima
Man of the Match	Léo Silva (Kashima Antlers)
Referee	Ma Ning (China)
Attendance	35,022
Weather	Clear; 15 °C (59 °F)
Second leg
Date	10 November 2018
Venue	Azadi Stadium, Tehran
Man of the Match	Godwin Mensha (Persepolis)
Referee	Ahmed Al-Kaf the circus and corrupt referee (Oman)
Attendance	100,000
Weather	Windy; 10 °C (50 °F)
	← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 AFC Champions League Final was the final of the 2018 AFC Champions League, the 37th edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 16th under the current AFC Champions League title.

The final was contested in a two-legged home-and-away format between Kashima Antlers from Japan and Persepolis from Iran, with both teams making their first Champions League final appearances. The first leg was hosted by Kashima Antlers at the Kashima Soccer Stadium in Kashima on 3 November 2018, while the second leg was hosted by Persepolis at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran on 10 November 2018. This was the first AFC Champions League final involving an Iranian club since Zob Ahan in 2010.

Kashima Antlers won the final 2–0 on aggregate for their first AFC Champions League title. As Asian champions, they earned the right to represent the AFC at the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, entering at the second round.^[3]

Teams

In the following table, finals until 2002 were in the Asian Club Championship era, since 2003 were in the AFC Champions League era.

Team	Region	Previous finals appearances (bold indicates winners)
Kashima Antlers	East Region (Zone: EAFF)	None
Persepolis	West Region (Zone: CAFA)	None

Venues

Kashima Soccer Stadium in Kashima, Japan (L) and Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran (R)

The 2018 AFC Champions League Final was contested in two-legged home-and-away format, held at the home of both finalists. It is the sixth consecutive year that the AFC adopted such an arrangement. Kashima Antlers's home venue, 40,728 seater Kashima Soccer Stadium hosted the first leg. This was the first time that an Asian club final played in the Kashima Soccer Stadium.

78,116 seater Azadi Stadium hosted the second leg. It is the third time that an Asian club final played in the Azadi Stadium, with the previous final being 1999 and 2002. One of the problems for Azadi's hosting was women's presence at stadium ban, which is runs since 1979. Persepolis officials promised to provide their presence. The stadium also had minor renovations after Persepolis' qualification to the final.

Background

Both Persepolis and Kashima Antlers reached their first final.

Persepolis became the fifth different Iranian side, third in the AFC Champions League era to qualify for the final. It was the first time since 2010 that an Iranian side qualified for the final, Zob Ahan losing 1–3 to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea, that time around. They faced some tough opponents on their road to the final, the highlight being their challengers in the semifinal — Al-Sadd of Qatar who lined up with Barcelona great Xavi in the midfield and former Atlético Madrid legend Gabi manning the defence.^[4]

Kashima Antlers became the seventh different Japanese side, third in the AFC Champions League era to qualify for the final. They made consecutive appearances for Japanese clubs in the final, Urawa Red Diamonds winning 2–1 on aggregate against Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia in the previous edition. They were the runners-up of the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup where they lost 2–4 to the Spanish giants Real Madrid in extra time.^[5]^[6]

Road to the final

Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).

Kashima Antlers

Round

Persepolis

Opponent

Result

Group stage

Opponent

Result

Shanghai Shenhua

1–1 (H)

Matchday 1

Nasaf Qarshi

3–0 (H)

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

2–1 (A)

Matchday 2

Al-Sadd

1–3 (A)

Sydney FC

2–0 (A)

Matchday 3

Al-Wasl

2–0 (H)

Sydney FC

1–1 (H)

Matchday 4

Al-Wasl

1–0 (A)

Shanghai Shenhua

2–2 (A)

Matchday 5

Nasaf Qarshi

0–0 (A)

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

0–1 (H)

Matchday 6

Al-Sadd

1–0 (H)

Group H runners-up

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	6	10
2	Kashima Antlers	6	9
3	Sydney FC	6	6
4	Shanghai Shenhua	6	5

Source: AFC

Final standings

Group C winners

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Persepolis	6	13
2	Al-Sadd	6	12
3	Nasaf Qarshi	6	10
4	Al-Wasl	6	0

Source: AFC

Opponent

Agg.

1st leg

2nd leg

Knockout stage

Opponent

Agg.

1st leg

2nd leg

Shanghai SIPG

4–3

3–1 (H)

1–2 (A)

Round of 16

Al-Jazira

4–4 (a)

2–3 (A)

2–1 (H)

Tianjin Quanjian

5–0

2–0 (H)

3–0 (A)

Quarter-finals

Al-Duhail

3–2

0–1 (A)

3–1 (H)

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

6–5

3–2 (H)

3–3 (A)

Semi-finals

Al-Sadd

2–1

1–0 (A)

1–1 (H)

Format

The final was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis, with the order of legs (first leg hosted by team from the East Region, second leg hosted by team from the West Region) reversed from the previous season's final.^[7]

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 (Regulations, Section 3. 11.2 & 11.3).^[3]

Officials

Ma Ning from China has been chosen to officiate the first leg match. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2011. Ahmed Al-Kaf from Oman also officiated the second leg.^[8]

Pre-match

Ambassador

Ambassadors

Zico

Ali Parvin

The ambassador for the first leg final was former Brazilian footballer and Kashima Antlers legend Zico. Zico is currently technical manager of the team and brought the trophy before the first match. For the second leg, Persepolis announced its legend Ali Parvin as the ambassador.^[9]

Ticketing

With a stadium capacity of 90,000 for the second leg final, a total of 84,412 tickets were available to fans and the general public, with the guest team had 5,000 tickets. The price of the tickets was: 800,000 Rial ($19), 500,000 Rial ($12) and 300,000 Rial ($7).^{[citation needed]}

Opening ceremony

Iranian singer Mohsen Ebrahimzadeh performed at the opening ceremony preceding the second leg final.^[10] The time of concert was 8 minutes and two songs performed. One of the songs was English and the other Persian.

Matches

First leg

Summary

Two teams' coaches before the match

The first big chance fell to the visitors when a cross from the right was nodded into the path of Ali Alipour in the fourth minute. Just eight yards from goal, the striker looked certain to score but Jung Seung-hyun threw himself into the path of the shot and blocked it with his head. Two minutes later, Ahmad Nourollahi's free-kick from the left was tipped over by Kwoun Sun-tae as Persepolis applied early pressure. Kashima worked their way back into the game but the away side's threat on the break was demonstrated when Hiroki Abe was booked for a cynical foul on Bashar Resan as the midfielder surged forward. The hosts finally created an opening in the 25th minute as Daigo Nishi's cushioned header found Yuma Suzuki. But the striker's shot from a narrow angle flashed well wide of the far post. Six minutes later, Kashima had another opportunity when a through ball from Shoma Doi put Serginho through. The Brazilian created an angle for his shot but Shoja' Khalilzadeh slid in to make a vital block.

Kashima made the first chance of the second half when Abe instigated a move that ended with Serginho laying the ball back for Silva. The Brazilian tried to curl a shot into the top corner but his attempt drifted wide. But Silva soon had reason to celebrate as he gave Kashima the lead in the 58th minute. The midfield man played a neat one-two with Shoma on the edge of the Persepolis penalty area and cut inside before curling a low left-footed shot into the corner from 18 yards. Kashima then added their second in the 70th minute. The ball broke to Kento Misao 20 yards out and he played a deft pass into the path of Serginho on the right and the Brazilian placed his shot into the far corner from the edge of the six-yard box. There was a further blow for Persepolis as Siamak Nemati received his second yellow card in added time and the midfielder would miss the second leg.^[11]

Details

3 November 2018

15:00 UTC+9

Kashima Antlers	2–0	Persepolis
Léo Silva 58' Serginho 70'	Live Report Stats Report

Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima

Attendance: 35,022

Referee: Ma Ning (China)

Kashima Antlers

Persepolis


GK	1	Kwoun Sun-tae
RB	22	Daigo Nishi
CB	16	Shuto Yamamoto
CB	3	Gen Shoji (c)
LB	35	Jung Seung-hyun
RM	20	Kento Misao
CM	8	Shoma Doi		80'
CM	4	Léo Silva
LM	18	Serginho		90+2'
CF	9	Yuma Suzuki
CF	30	Hiroki Abe	11'	68'
Substitutes:
GK	21	Hitoshi Sogahata
DF	32	Koki Anzai		68'
DF	39	Tomoya Inukai
MF	6	Ryota Nagaki		80'
MF	25	Yasushi Endo
MF	40	Mitsuo Ogasawara
FW	14	Takeshi Kanamori		90+2'
Manager:
Go Oiwa


GK	1	Alireza Beiranvand
RB	69	Shayan Mosleh
CB	4	Jalal Hosseini (c)
CB	3	Shoja' Khalilzadeh	72'
LB	15	Mohammad Ansari
RM	88	Siamak Nemati	62' 90+3'
CM	11	Kamal Kamyabinia
CM	5	Bashar Resan
LM	8	Ahmad Nourollahi		70'
CF	70	Ali Alipour
CF	90	Godwin Mensha
Substitutes:
GK	44	Božidar Radošević
MF	18	Mohsen Rabiekhah
MF	21	Adam Hemati
MF	22	Omid Alishah		70'
MF	25	Ehsan Alvanzadeh
MF	26	Saeid Hosseinpour
MF	37	Hamidreza Taherkhani
Manager:
Branko Ivanković

Man of the Match:
Léo Silva (Kashima Antlers)^[1]

Assistant referees:^[1]
Cao Yi (China)
Shi Xiang (China)
Fourth official:^[1]
Huo Weiming (China)
Additional assistant referees:^[1]
Fu Ming (China)
Liu Kwok Man (Hong Kong)

Match rules^[3]

90 minutes.
Seven named substitutes, of which up to three may be used.

Statistics

First half^[12]
Statistic	Kashima Antlers	Persepolis
Goals scored	0	0
Total shots	4	5
Shots on target	0	1
Passes	185	146
Ball possession	55%	45%

Second half^[13]
Statistic	Kashima Antlers	Persepolis
Goals scored	2	0
Total shots	4	2
Shots on target	2	1
Passes	193	168
Ball possession	55%	45%

Overall
Statistic	Kashima Antlers	Persepolis
Goals scored	2	0
Total shots	8	7
Shots on target	2	2
Passes	378	314
Ball possession	55%	45%