{"id":29388,"date":"2025-08-15T22:29:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=29388"},"modified":"2025-08-15T22:29:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:29:26","slug":"asean-giants-set-to-square-off-in-acl2-group-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/08\/15\/asean-giants-set-to-square-off-in-acl2-group-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"ASEAN Giants Set to Square Off in ACL2 Group Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southeast Asia\u2019s football heavyweights will go head-to-head in the 2025\/26 AFC Champions League Two group stage after True Bangkok United, Selangor FC, Lion City Sailors, and Persib Bandung were drawn together in a tantalizing Group G, setting the stage for fierce regional showdowns.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thai giants Bangkok United headline the group as top seeds, having dropped into ACL2 following their 3-0 away defeat to Chengdu Rongcheng in the AFC Champions League Elite qualifiers on August 12. Malaysia\u2019s Selangor, who narrowly missed last season\u2019s knockout stage, enter as second seeds, while last year\u2019s ACL2 runners-up Lion City Sailors of Singapore take the third seed. Completing the lineup are Indonesian champions Persib, who booked their spot with a hard-fought 2-1 qualifying play-off win over Manila Digger of the Philippines on August 13.<\/p>\n

On paper, the group looks evenly matched, with Bangkok United and the Sailors carrying a slight edge thanks to recent continental experience. Still, with all four sides capable of producing big performances, the battle for knockout spots could go down to the wire.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the East Region, China\u2019s Beijing Guoan and Australia\u2019s Macarthur FC start as clear favorites in Group E, though Vietnamese debutants Cong An Ha Noi will aim to spring a surprise, with Hong Kong\u2019s Tai Po completing the group. Group F features Japan\u2019s Gamba Osaka as overwhelming favorites, leaving Thailand\u2019s Ratchaburi FC and Vietnam\u2019s Thep Xanh Nam Dinh to fight for second, alongside Hong Kong\u2019s Eastern AA. In Group H, South Korea\u2019s Pohang Steelers and Thailand\u2019s BG Pathum United are expected to lead the way, while the Philippines\u2019 Kaya FC\u2013Iloilo and Singapore\u2019s BG Tampines Rovers add intrigue\u2014particularly with the latter facing BGPU in a \u201cBangkok Glass derby\u201d between two clubs under the same ownership.<\/p>\n

Over in the West Region, defending AFC Challenge League champions FK Arkadag of Turkmenistan\u2014dubbed by some as \u201cthe best club in the world<\/a>\u201d\u2014face FK Andijan of Uzbekistan, Al-Ahli of Qatar, and Al-Khaldiya of Bahrain in their group. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian giants Al-Nassr, led by Cristiano Ronaldo and widely regarded as tournament favorites, will meet India\u2019s FC Goa, Iraq\u2019s Al-Zawraa, and Istiklol of Tajikistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southeast Asia\u2019s football heavyweights will go head-to-head in the 2025\/26 AFC Champions League Two group stage after True Bangkok United, Selangor FC, Lion City Sailors, and Persib Bandung were drawn together in a tantalizing Group G, setting the stage for fierce regional showdowns. Thai giants Bangkok United headline the group as top seeds, having dropped into ACL2 following their 3-0 away defeat to Chengdu Rongcheng in the AFC Champions League Elite qualifiers on August 12. Malaysia\u2019s Selangor, who narrowly missed last season\u2019s knockout stage, enter as second seeds, while last year\u2019s ACL2 runners-up Lion City Sailors of Singapore take the third seed. Completing the lineup are Indonesian champions Persib, who … Continue reading “ASEAN Giants Set to Square Off in ACL2 Group Stage”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":25165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,25],"tags":[2878,926,226,91,2008,64,428,1672,108,95,315,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29390,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29388\/revisions\/29390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}