2019 AFC Champions League knockout stage

The 2019 AFC Champions League knockout stage was played from 18 June to 24 November 2019.^[1] A total of 16 teams competed in the knockout stage to decide the champions of the 2019 AFC Champions League.^[2]

Qualified teams

The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage advanced to the round of 16, with both West Region (Groups A–D) and East Region (Groups E–H) having eight qualified teams.

Region	Group	Winners	Runners-up
West Region	A	Zob Ahan	Al-Nassr
	B	Al-Wahda	Al-Ittihad
	C	Al-Hilal	Al-Duhail
	D	Al-Sadd	Al-Ahli
East Region	E	Shandong Luneng	Kashima Antlers
	F	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	Guangzhou Evergrande
	G	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Urawa Red Diamonds
	H	Ulsan Hyundai	Shanghai SIPG

Format

In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the teams split into the two regions until the final. Each tie is played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. 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 Article 11.3).^[2]

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows.^[1] Up to the semi-finals, matches in the West Region were played on Mondays and Tuesdays, while matches in the East Region were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Round	First leg	Second leg
Round of 16	18–19 June 2019 (E), 5–6 August 2019 (W)	25–26 June 2019 (E), 12–13 August 2019 (W)
Quarter-finals	26–28 August 2019	16–18 September 2019
Semi-finals	1–2 October 2019	22–23 October 2019
Final	9 November 2019	24 November 2019

Bracket

The bracket of the knockout stage was determined as follows:

Round

Matchups

Round of 16

(Group winners host second leg)

West Region

Group A runners-up vs. Group B winners
Group B runners-up vs. Group A winners
Group C runners-up vs. Group D winners
Group D runners-up vs. Group C winners

East Region

Group E runners-up vs. Group F winners
Group F runners-up vs. Group E winners
Group G runners-up vs. Group H winners
Group H runners-up vs. Group G winners

Quarter-finals

(Matchups and order of legs decided by draw, involving four round of 16 winners each in West Region and East Region)

West Region

QF1
QF2

East Region

QF3
QF4

Semi-finals

(Winners of QF1 and QF3 host first leg, winners of QF2 and QF4 host second leg)

West Region

SF1: Winners of QF1 vs. Winners of QF2

East Region

SF2: Winners of QF3 vs. Winners of QF4

Final

(Winners of SF1 host first leg, winners of SF2 host second leg, as reversed from previous season's final)

Winners of SF1 vs. Winners of SF2

The bracket was decided after the draw for the quarter-finals, which was held on 2 July 2019, 16:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[3]^[4]

Round of 16				Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final

Al-Nassr	1	3	4

Al-Wahda	1	2	3
				Al-Nassr	2	1	3

				Al-Sadd	1	3	4
Al-Duhail	1	1	2

Al-Sadd	1	3	4
								Al-Sadd	1	4	5
West Region
								Al-Hilal	4	2	6
Al-Ittihad	2	4	6

Zob Ahan	1	3	4
				Al-Ittihad	0	1	1

				Al-Hilal	0	3	3
Al-Ahli	2	1	3

Al-Hilal	4	0	4
												Al-Hilal	1	2	3

												Urawa Red Diamonds	0	0	0
Shanghai SIPG (p)	1	1	2 (5)

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	1	1	2 (3)
				Shanghai SIPG	2	1	3

				Urawa Red Diamonds (a)	2	1	3
Urawa Red Diamonds	1	3	4

Ulsan Hyundai	2	0	2
								Urawa Red Diamonds	2	1	3
East Region
								Guangzhou Evergrande	0	0	0
Guangzhou Evergrande (p)	2	2	4 (6)

Shandong Luneng	1	3	4 (5)
				Guangzhou Evergrande (a)	0	1	1

				Kashima Antlers	0	1	1
Kashima Antlers (a)	1	2	3

Sanfrecce Hiroshima	0	3	3

Round of 16

Summary

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group from the same region, with the group winners hosting the second leg, and the matchups determined by the group stage draw.

West Region
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Al-Nassr	4–3	Al-Wahda	1–1	3–2
Al-Ittihad	6–4	Zob Ahan	2–1	4–3
Al-Duhail	2–4	Al-Sadd	1–1	1–3
Al-Ahli	3–4	Al-Hilal	2–4	1–0

East Region
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Kashima Antlers	3–3 (a)	Sanfrecce Hiroshima	1–0	2–3
Guangzhou Evergrande	4–4 (6–5 p)	Shandong Luneng	2–1	2–3 (a.e.t.)
Urawa Red Diamonds	4–2	Ulsan Hyundai	1–2	3–0
Shanghai SIPG	2–2 (5–3 p)	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)

West Region

5 August 2019

21:00 UTC+3

Al-Nassr	1–1	Al-Wahda
Hamdallah 17'	Live Report Stats Report	Leonardo 53'

King Fahd International Stadium, Riyadh

Attendance: 8,617

Referee: Ali Sabah (Iraq)

12 August 2019

19:40 UTC+4

Al-Wahda	2–3	Al-Nassr
Al-Menhali 27' Tagliabúe 79'	Live Report Stats Report	Hamdallah 41' Giuliano 45+1', 62'

Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Attendance: 5,742

Referee: Muhammad Taqi (Singapore)

Al-Nassr won 4–3 on aggregate.

5 August 2019

20:00 UTC+4

Al-Ittihad	2–1	Zob Ahan
Jiménez 9' Al-Sahafi 72'	Live Report Stats Report	Haddadifar 7'

Zabeel Stadium, Dubai (United Arab Emirates)^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 2,380

Referee: Ma Ning (China)

12 August 2019

22:00 UTC+3

Zob Ahan	3–4	Al-Ittihad
Jiménez 53' (o.g.) Mohammadi 72' Chrisantus 83'	Live Report Stats Report	Vecchio 45+1' Sadeghi 54' (o.g.) Romarinho 64', 70'

Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha (Qatar)^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 700

Referee: Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)

Al-Ittihad won 6–4 on aggregate.

6 August 2019

19:00 UTC+3

Al-Duhail	1–1	Al-Sadd
Msakni 44'	Live Report Stats Report	Afif 30'

Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah

Attendance: 9,548

Referee: Ryuji Sato (Japan)

13 August 2019

19:15 UTC+3

Al-Sadd	3–1	Al-Duhail
Afif 20' Hassan 34' Yasser 90+1' (o.g.)	Live Report Stats Report	Edmilson 56'

Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha

Attendance: 9,930

Referee: Chris Beath (Australia)

Al-Sadd won 4–2 on aggregate.

6 August 2019

19:40 UTC+3

Al-Ahli	2–4	Al-Hilal
Al Somah 6' Djaniny 39'	Live Report Stats Report	Gomis 15', 48', 65' Al-Hafith 81'

King Abdullah Sports City, Jeddah

Attendance: 48,094

Referee: Ahmed Al-Kaf (Oman)

13 August 2019

20:30 UTC+3

Al-Hilal	0–1	Al-Ahli
	Live Report Stats Report	Asiri 42'

King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh

Attendance: 22,706

Referee: Ma Ning (China)

Al-Hilal won 4–3 on aggregate.

East Region

18 June 2019

19:00 UTC+9

Kashima Antlers	1–0	Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Serginho 24'	Live Report Stats Report

Kashima Soccer Stadium, Kashima

Attendance: 13,179

Referee: Aziz Asimov (Uzbekistan)

25 June 2019

19:00 UTC+9

Sanfrecce Hiroshima	3–2	Kashima Antlers
Patric 66', 90+6' (pen.) Sasaki 72'	Live Report Stats Report	Doi 33', 89'

Hiroshima Big Arch, Hiroshima

Attendance: 4,279

Referee: Ali Sabah (Iraq)

3–3 on aggregate. Kashima Antlers won on away goals.

18 June 2019

20:00 UTC+8

Guangzhou Evergrande	2–1	Shandong Luneng
Wei Shihao 35' Zheng Zheng 80' (o.g.)	Live Report Stats Report	Zhang Chi 66'

Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou

Attendance: 38,900

Referee: Hettikamkanamge Perera (Sri Lanka)

25 June 2019

19:30 UTC+8

Shandong Luneng	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Guangzhou Evergrande
Zhou Haibin 62' Fellaini 70' Liu Junshuai 93'	Live Report Stats Report	Paulinho 13', 103'
Penalties
Jin Jingdao Gil Fellaini Hao Junmin Zhou Haibin Cui Peng	5–6	Wei Shihao Gao Lin Yang Liyu Paulinho Zhang Linpeng Zhong Yihao

Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, Jinan

Attendance: 35,148

Referee: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)

4–4 on aggregate. Guangzhou Evergrande won 6–5 on penalties.

19 June 2019

19:30 UTC+9

Urawa Red Diamonds	1–2	Ulsan Hyundai
Sugimoto 37'	Live Report Stats Report	Joo Min-kyu 42' Hwang Il-su 80'

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 20,741

Referee: Turki Al-Khudhayr (Saudi Arabia)

26 June 2019

20:00 UTC+9

Ulsan Hyundai	0–3	Urawa Red Diamonds
	Live Report Stats Report	Koroki 41', 80' Ewerton 87'

Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium, Ulsan

Attendance: 3,140

Referee: Khamis Al-Kuwari (Qatar)

Urawa Red Diamonds won 4–2 on aggregate.

19 June 2019

20:00 UTC+8

Shanghai SIPG	1–1	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Wang Shenchao 39'	Live Report Stats Report	Moon Seon-min 1'

Shanghai Stadium, Shanghai

Attendance: 20,007

Referee: Nawaf Shukralla (Bahrain)

26 June 2019

19:00 UTC+9

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Shanghai SIPG
Kim Shin-wook 27'	Live Report Stats Report	Hulk 80'
Penalties
Lee Dong-gook Kim Shin-wook Lee Yong Shin Hyung-min	3–5	Hulk Elkeson Ahmedov Wang Shenchao Oscar

Jeonju World Cup Stadium, Jeonju

Attendance: 11,095

Referee: Alireza Faghani (Iran)

2–2 on aggregate. Shanghai SIPG won 5–3 on penalties.