The real challenge begins now: Choi

AFC – TEHRAN, While delighted with his team’s progress to the AFC Champions League final on Wednesday, FC Seoul coach Choi Yong-soo has stressed that their task of claiming Asia’s biggest club title is still not complete.

The Korean side drew 2-2 with Esteghlal at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran on Wednesday to complete a 4-2 aggregate victory over the Iranian side which made FC Seoul the fifth consecutive Korean club to reach the AFC Champions League final.

Leading 2-0 from the first leg, FC Seoul extended their advantage with a delightful chip by captain Ha Dae-sung late in the opening half.

Esteghlal cut the deficit with strikes by Jlloyd Samuel and Mohammad Ghazi but Kim Jin-kyu converted a penalty for the visitors 10 minutes from the end to effectively kill off the match.

“We are very glad with this result,” said Choi. “We played in Tehran’s superb stadium and scored two very good goals. I shall remain grateful to all of my players but our real challenge has just begun.”

“If you ask me, I wouldn’t ascribe any sort of luck to our success right now. My players have been smart and they put out all of their effort and capabilities. There’s always a team behind team and club’s management kept backing us well all the way through.

“In the second period, we wanted to defend better, but to my surprise we conceded twice. We should have been better in defence but if we wanted to only defend in our own half, things would have turned out difficult for us. So I thought we could keep attacking well using our many offensive players.”

A tantalising final against Chinese double winners Guangzhou Evergrande now awaits FC Seoul and Choi is looking forward to the showdown with the Chinese club.

“We have got to lock horns with the Chinese side in the final and this is where we can prove to Asia that we are also a good team,” he said.

“Guangzhou Evergrande have quality players, many of whom play for the China national team.

“We can use the long gap between now and our next game to gear up for the clash. Champions and runners-up in this tournament will be very differently looked upon, so we will try our best to come out winners,” he concluded.