As the AFC Champions League resumes, the lineup of teams is not the same as the old top four. Harbor's unexpected exit from the competition leaves only three strong teams in the Chinese Super League, namely Taishan, Sanzhen and Zhejiang. Given that the Harbor team has superstars such as Oscar and Wu Lei, the outside world had high hopes for them. However, they were eliminated by a mid-table Thai team, a seemingly unexpected result that makes people wonder how fierce the competition for the AFC Champions League is. As you can see, the competition in the qualifying rounds has already heated up, and the group stage is even more volatile.
Unfortunately, Taishan and Sanzhen had a bad luck in signing the contract, and their opponents in the same group are the strongest teams in Japan and South Korea. Coupled with the adjustment of the rules of the AFC Champions League, only the top of the group can be promoted, the second place to promote the quota is even more tense. The outside world has been psychologically prepared for this, after all, compared with the first two teams, Zhejiang team's group is relatively lucky. Their opponents are Japan's Kofu Furin, Thailand's Buriram United and Australia's Melbourne City. Even the strongest team, Buriram United, is the champion of the Thai league, which is not comparable to the strongest teams in Japan and South Korea.
Although Kofu Falebayashi is a middle to lower ranked team in J2 League, they accidentally beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima in last season's cup match, and the road to winning the championship is quite bumpy. Its strength is unstable and should be treated with caution. As for Melbourne City, as the champion of the Australian Super League, its strength should not be underestimated. However, Chinese Super League teams are not at a total disadvantage when playing against Australian Super League teams, especially at home. Of course, this is only the impression before the 2020 season. Nowadays, the overall strength of foreign aid has declined, and the competitiveness has weakened accordingly, so the winners and losers still need to be actually competed against each other.
Despite the smooth grouping, the difficulties of playing away from home are obvious, with both Thailand and Australia having to travel long distances. The coaching team will need to focus on overcoming fatigue, and with Zhejiang returning to the AFC Champions League after 12 years and with little experience in the game, it will certainly be a fresh start.
It is worth mentioning that to participate in the Asian Championship not only need to invest money, but also to do a good job of site preparation, which has a greater impact on the actual input of the Zhejiang team. Once into the knockout rounds, the cost will further increase, so the Zhejiang team need to carefully weigh the pros and cons. After all, there are also performance requirements in the league, a comprehensive consideration of gains and losses is crucial.
