The new K League season starts this coming weekend, but before that fun we have the second round of games in the AFC Champions League group stages. It wasn’t a good start for the K League sides last week so fingers crossed Tuesday and Wednesday provide a little more luck.
Tuesday evenings games feature a trip to Japan for FC Seoul, whilst Ulsan Hyundai host A-League side Brisbane Roar.
+ For Details of Wednesdays Games CLICK HERE +
AFC Champions League 2017 Pre-Game Update
4 teams for the Korean K League Classic are involved FC Seoul, Ulsan Hyundai, Jeju United and Suwon Bluewings. K League sides have been a key feature of the competition over the past few seasons with Jeonbuk Hyundai the champions from last season.
Last week Ulsan, Seoul and Jeju all lost their opening games, whilst Suwon drew on the road. Ulsan are currently bottom of Group E the only team without any points. FC Seoul are 3rd in Group F, only ahead of Western Sydney Wanderers on goal difference. So defeat could spell an early exit from the champions league.
AFC Champions League Previews and Predictions (Tuesday February 28th 2017)
Here are our brief previews for Tuesday evenings AFC Champions League games featuring K League sides as well as head-to-head (H2H) records and predictions;
Ulsan Hyundai vs. Brisbane Roar @ 7.30pm
The first game of the evening comes from the Munsu Cup Stadium (Ulsan) and takes place in Group E. It’s between K League side Ulsan Hyundai and Australia A-League side Brisbane Roar. Ulsan finished 4th in the K League and reached the group stages via the playoffs but needed penalties to beat Hong Kong side Kitchee. They lost last week to Kashima Antlers 2-0 and looked slow. Brisbane Roar lead by former Coventry City striker John Aloisi, also reached the group stages via the playoffs shocking everyone by beating Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua (including Carlos Tevez). They drew their opening game with Muangthong United, and lost at the weekend in the league.
Head-to-Head / H2H:
They played each other twice before, also in the Champions League back in 2012. Ulsan won away 2-1 and the game in Korea ended 1-1.
Prediction:
1 – 0
Ulsan maybe slight favorites on recent form.
Urawa Reds vs. FC Seoul @ 7.30pm
The second game of the evening comes from the Saitama Stadium 2002 and is in Group F (unofficially known as the group of death). The game is between K League Champions FC Seoul and 2016 J League runners-up Urawa Reds. FC Seoul lost their opening game against big spending Shanghai SIPG, although it took a super strike from Brazilian Hulk to separate the sides. Urawa Reds hammered Western Sydney Wanderers 4-0 in their opening game, however they lost in the opening game of the J-League this past weekend. Rafael Silva is their danger man.
Head-to-Head / H2H:
They played each other twice last season in the Round of 16 in the Champions League, Seoul won over the 2 legs on penalties. They also played a friendly earlier this month with finished 1-1.
Prediction:
1 – 1
Seoul cannot afford to lose, but they also have the Super Match to think about this coming Sunday. So we see this one ending all square.
AFC Champions League Results & Highlights
Ulsan Hyundai 6 – 0 Brisbane Roar
Ulsan made a statement and showed a 100% improvement by hammering Brisbane 6-0. 3 goals in each half shared between Orsic x2, Kim In-Sung x2, Kovacec and Lee Jong-Ho.
Urawa Reds 5 – 2 FC Seoul
Urawa put on a first half masterclass to beat K League Champions FC Seoul. 5 first half goals meant the game was over by half time. Park Chu-Young and Dejan scored the 2 goals for FC Seoul.
Highlights:
Finally
For information on the all of our previous K League and AFC Champions League posts: CLICK HERE
As always if you have anything you’d like to add please let us know. We will try and keep things updated as best as possible via Twitter (and little via Facebook).
Tim
Modern Seoul
tim@modernseoul.org
Modern Seoul 