| Kuala Lumpur -
AFC Champions League 2002/3 runners-up BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand will have their work
cut out if they hope to return to the final again in the upcoming season. The Thai side were placed in arguably the toughest of the seven
first-stage groups when the official draw for the AFC Champions League 2004 season was
conducted at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
BEC are in Group E, a virtual 'group of death' that also
includes Chinese league champions Shanghai Shenhua, Korean Cup winners Chonbuk Motors and
Japan's Jubilo Iwata.
The Group Stage of the AFC Champions League will run from
February to May, and with only the winners of each group advancing to the knock-out stages
of the competition, none of the competing teams will be able to afford any slip-ups during
the opening round.
Defending champions Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates have
received a bye into the quarter-finals, which will be played over two legs in September.
The semi-finals will be held on 20 and 27 October, and the
final is scheduled for 24 November and 1 December.
The Group Stage draw was conducted on a regional basis with
four groups consisting of West Asian sides and three consisting of East Asian teams.
| Group A |
| Teams |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
Points |
| Zob-Ahan |
1 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
| Qatar sport Club |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
| Pakhtakor (Uzbekistan) |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Al-Riffa (Bahrain) |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Group D |
| Teams |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
Points |
| Sepahan ** |
2 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
4 |
7 |
| Al-Ittehad (Saudi) |
2 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
4 |
6 |
| Al-Arabi (Kuwait) |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
| Nftchi (uzbekistan) |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Index