2016 AFC Champions League

[04041374]

23 years have gone since an Iranian team has won the Asian Club Championship. Hopefully, we can end this streak after such a long time. The competition will start soon and we are going to have 4 Iranian representatives: Sepahan, Tractor Sazi, Naft Tehran and Zob Ahan. The play-offs have already been drawn and the group stages will be drawn on Thursday, December 10th

Play-Offs
February 9th 2016 Naft Tehran - El Jaish (Qatar)

Group stage
Group A: Sepahan - Al Nasr (UAE) - Lokomotiv (UZB) - Al Ittihad/Al Wehdat (JOR)
Group B: Zob Ahan - Lekhwiya (QAT) - Al Nassr (KSA) - Al Shabab (UAE)/Bunyodkor (UZB)
Group C: Tractor Sazi - Al Hilal (KSA) - Pakhtakor (UZB) - Al Sadd (QAT)/Al Jazira (UAE)
Group D: Naft Tehran/El Jaish (QAT) - Al Ain (UAE) - Al Ahli (KSA) - Nasaf Qarshi (UZB)

February 23rd 2016
Sepahan - Al Ittihad (KSA)/Al Wehdat (JOR)
Lekhwiya (QAT) - Zob Ahan

February 24th 2016
Tractor Sazi - Al Hilal (KSA)
Al Ain (UAE) - Naft Tehran/El Jaish

March 1st 2016
Al Nasr (UAE) - Sepahan
Zob Ahan - Al Nassr (KSA)

March 2nd 2016
Al Sadd (QAT)/Al Jazira (UAE) - Tractor Sazi
Naft Tehran/El Jaish - Al Ahli (KSA)

March 15th 2016
Sepahan - Lokomotiiv (UZB)
Pakhtakor (UZB) - Tractor Sazi

March 16th 2016
Al Shabab (UAE)/Bunyodkor (UZB) - Zob Ahan
Naft Tehran/El Jaish - Nasaf Qarshi (UZB)

April 5th 2016
Zob Ahan - Al Shabab (UAE)/Bunyodkor (UZB)
Nasaf Qarshi (UZB) - Naft Tehran/El Jaish

April 6th 2016
Lokomotiv (UZB) - Sepahan
Tractor Sazi - Pakhtakor (UZB)

April 19th 2016
Al Hilal (KSA) - Tractor Sazi
Naft Tehran/El Jaish - Al Ain (UAE)

April 20th 2016
Al Ittihad (KSA)/Al Wehdat (JOR) - Sepahan
Zob Ahan - Lekhwiya (QAT)

May 3rd 2016
Tractor Sazi - Al Sadd (QAT)/Al Jazira (UAE)
Al Ahli (KSA) - Naft Tehran/El Jaish (QAT)

May 4th 2016
Sepahan - Al Nasr (UAE)
Al Nassr (KSA) - Zob Ahan


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_AFC_Champions_League

[Ab-Gosht]

sorry but 2016 none of our teams can win it. hopefully they can do decent all 4 and progress to last 16 and then two of them to last 8 that would be fun

[teammelli91]

I'm really looking forward to see the return of Sepahan and Zob Ahan.

Zob Ahan has been playing good football in the league and they have a few promising players. From their GK Mazaheri to Morteza Tabrizi. They have their anchor Rajabzadeh with all his experience in football (international, domestic, continental..). This team will go far in the tournament if and only if they keep their players until December of 2016.

As far as Naft goes, they are playing decent football too, but they were bad at the start of the league. Hopefully they can beat al jeesh and qualify along the other 3.

[ali alipour]

Safe prediction:
Tractor Sazi finishes bottom of their group

[Paradigm]

See what other teams that win the titles do... learn from them.

[teammelli91]

What to do and not to do for more success in the ACL:

Step 1) DO NOT CHANGE PLAYERS FOR NEXT SEASON!

Step 2) Make sure to check for players who are suspended so an arab team does not disqualify you through paperwork

[04041374]

Step 2) Make sure to check for players who are suspended so an arab team does not disqualify you through paperwork

We can't do worse than Real Madrid

[persepolisfan]

None of these teams will win it all, but zob ahan will be interesting to watch. This is a great test for golmo, and I'm pretty confident in his ability

[eerooni]

We had a chance 10-15 years ago. Now it's too late our clubs have not evolved enough to compete with most teams.

[04041374]

Some interesting foreign stars our clubs might play against.

Al Nassr (Saudi-Arabia): Fabio Cannavaro, he's a coach though
Al Hilal (Saudi-Arabia): Carlos Eduardo, Ailton Almeida
Al Ain (UAE): Emanuel Emenike
Lekhwiya (Qatar): Chico Flores, Vladimir Weiss
Al-Ittihad (Saudi-Arabia): Sulley Muntari
Al-Jazira (UAE): Jefferson Farfan, Mirko Vucinic
Al-Shabab (UAE): Jô
Al-Sadd (Qatar): Xavi

[teammelli91]

Zob Ahan will be a team to watch this ACL. They're finally back and they're playing well.

[teammelli91]

Some interesting foreign stars our clubs might play against.

Al Nassr (Saudi-Arabia): Fabio Cannavaro, he's a coach though
Al Hilal (Saudi-Arabia): Carlos Eduardo, Ailton Almeida
Al Ain (UAE): Emanuel Emenike
Lekhwiya (Qatar): Chico Flores, Vladimir Weiss
Al-Ittihad (Saudi-Arabia): Sulley Muntari
Al-Jazira (UAE): Jefferson Farfan, Mirko Vucinic
Al-Shabab (UAE): Jô
Al-Sadd (Qatar): Xavi

Lol lets see how these guys do without their foreign based players. It looks like they're more focused on their clubs than their national team.

[teammelli91]

I'm super excited to see Esfahan back in the ACL.

You guys might not believe me when I say that club success in the ACL manifests into Team Melli in the future. Where I'm going with this is that, we never know what the future holds. Depending on how well these teams do might have Carlos invite a few of them on board.

I doubt a player like Rajabzadeh would accept an offer to help Team Melli because of his age. But he's been playing well as of late. We saw Mazaheri in the list a couple of times, and a few other Zob players.

I remember Hadadifar, Shahab Gordan, Farshid Talebi, and a few others invited during Ghotbi's era due to their success with Zob Ahan. But we will see.

ACL is always exciting to follow, but my senses tell me something good will happen Good fortune to all 3 + NT teams!

[Martin-Reza]

Our best players play abroad and the remaining good players are scattered through the league. There barely is a team with more than 1 regular TM starter or more than 2-3 regular TM call-ups in the league. That's why we have a quite strong league, but no internationally competitive club.

[Keano]

I am expecting our ACL quota to be cut down to 2 +1 teams by next year. And that is a fair assessment TBH. These Persian Arab leagues, Chinese league all have been on the trend of purchasing prolific and high quality foreign players, while in our country we're too busy importing useless foreign players, or demoralizing our own clubs, while destabilizing our football all together.

China's football within several years will surprise us all!