AFC Champions League Elite Draw: Same Opponents for Shanghai Port and Beijing Guoan! Avoiding Japan's Top 5, Facing 6 Teams from South Korea and Thailand

On August 18, Beijing time, the draw for the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Elite was revealed. All eight opponents for the two Chinese Super League clubs, Shanghai Port and Beijing Guoan, in the league phase have been determined.

The two teams have identical opponents, but with home and away matches swapped. They both bypassed the five Japanese clubs and will play three teams from the K League and three from the Thai League.

The specific opponents are as follows:

Shanghai Port's opponents:

Home vs Buriram United (Thailand), Away vs Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (South Korea), Home vs Daejeon Hana Citizen (South Korea), Away vs Newcastle Jets (Australia), Home vs Port FC (Thailand), Away vs Pohang Steelers (South Korea), Home vs Hanoi Police (Vietnam), Away vs Ratchaburi (Thailand)

Beijing Guoan's opponents:

Home vs Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (South Korea), Away vs Buriram United (Thailand), Home vs Newcastle Jets (Australia), Away vs Daejeon Hana Citizen (South Korea), Home vs Pohang Steelers (South Korea), Away vs Port FC (Thailand), Home vs Ratchaburi (Thailand), Away vs Hanoi Police (Vietnam)

[Draw Seedings]

Pot 1: Kashima Antlers (Japan), Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (South Korea), Buriram United (Thailand), Shanghai Port (China)

Pot 2: Newcastle Jets (Australia), Johor Darul Ta'zim (Malaysia), Vissel Kobe (Japan), Daejeon Hana Citizen (South Korea)

Pot 3: Port FC (Thailand), Beijing Guoan (China), Kashiwa Reysol (Japan), Pohang Steelers (South Korea)

Pot 4: Ratchaburi (Thailand), Kyoto Sanga (Japan), Gamba Osaka (Japan), Hanoi Police (Vietnam)

[Format and Schedule]

The new season of the AFC Champions League Elite will continue to use the "Swiss-system" format adopted last season. However, this season will see 32 participating teams for the first time.

The East Asia and West Asia zones will each have 16 teams, an increase of four per zone compared to before. Based on the draw results, they will play 8 matches each—4 home and 4 away—against designated opponents. The top eight teams from each zone's group stage will advance to the round of 16 knockout stage.

The round of 16 will be held from March 1 to March 17, 2027. From the quarter-finals onward, all remaining matches will be centralized into a final-stage tournament format, with all games taking place in Saudi Arabia from April 23 to May 1, 2027.