{"id":29641,"date":"2025-12-31T03:36:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=29641"},"modified":"2025-12-31T03:36:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T18:36:53","slug":"persib-and-ratchaburi-to-lock-horns-in-acl2-knockouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/12\/31\/persib-and-ratchaburi-to-lock-horns-in-acl2-knockouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Persib and Ratchaburi to Lock Horns in ACL2 Knockouts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"227\"><strong>Reigning Liga 1 Indonesia champions Persib Bandung have been drawn against Thailand\u2019s Ratchaburi FC in the round of 16 of the 2025\/26 AFC Champions League Two, following the conclusion of the knockout stage draw on December 30.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"229\" data-end=\"444\">The winner of the tie will advance to a blockbuster quarterfinal clash against either Japan\u2019s Gamba Osaka or South Korea\u2019s Pohang Steelers, who are set to face each other in an all-heavyweight round of 16 encounter.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"446\" data-end=\"663\">Having topped their group, Persib will enjoy the advantage of hosting the second leg at Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium on February 18, with the first leg scheduled for February 11 at Ratchaburi\u2019s Dragon Solar Park.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"665\" data-end=\"886\">The matchup also carries a sense of familiarity. Prior to the ACL Two draw, Persib and Ratchaburi crossed paths during the <em>Maung Bandung<\/em>\u2019s pre-season training camp in Thailand, playing out a 2\u20132 draw at Dragon Solar Park.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"888\" data-end=\"1281\">With that recent meeting still fresh, Persib head into the tie with quiet confidence. A star-studded squad expected to be further strengthened in the mid-season transfer window, broadly comparable squad quality between the two sides, and Persib\u2019s encouraging recent record against Thai opposition have bolstered belief among the <em>Maung Bandung<\/em> faithful that their side can overcome the Dragons.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1283\" data-end=\"1470\">Elsewhere in the East Zone, Vietnam\u2019s C\u00f4ng An H\u00e0 N\u1ed9i were drawn against Singapore\u2019s Tampines Rovers, while Thai heavyweights True Bangkok United were paired with Australia\u2019s Macarthur FC.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1472\" data-end=\"1885\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">In the West Zone, tournament favorites Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia were handed a tie against Turkmenistan\u2019s FK Arkadag, the self-proclaimed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/04\/19\/the-worlds-best-football-club-braces-for-maiden-continental-final\/\">best football club in the world<\/a>.\u201d Iranian giants Esteghlal will face Jordan\u2019s Al-Hussein, while fellow Iranian side Sepahan were drawn in a mouth-watering clash against Qatar\u2019s Al Ahli. Rounding out the draw, Iraq\u2019s Al-Zawraa will take on Al Wasl of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reigning Liga 1 Indonesia champions Persib Bandung have been drawn against Thailand\u2019s Ratchaburi FC in the round of 16 of the 2025\/26 AFC Champions League Two, following the conclusion of the knockout stage draw on December 30. The winner of the tie will advance to a blockbuster quarterfinal clash against either Japan\u2019s Gamba Osaka or South Korea\u2019s Pohang Steelers, who are set to face each other in an all-heavyweight round of 16 encounter. Having topped their group, Persib will enjoy the advantage of hosting the second leg at Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium on February 18, with the first leg scheduled for February 11 at Ratchaburi\u2019s Dragon Solar Park. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2025\/12\/31\/persib-and-ratchaburi-to-lock-horns-in-acl2-knockouts\/\" class=\"tribe-more-link\">Continue reading &#8220;Persib and Ratchaburi to Lock Horns in ACL2 Knockouts&#8221;<\/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":[2878,926,91,428,601,95,315,68],"class_list":["post-29641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-cup","category-asia","tag-afc-champions-league-two","tag-asia","tag-indonesia","tag-persib-bandung","tag-ratchaburi-fc","tag-slider","tag-southeast-asia","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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=29641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29642,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29641\/revisions\/29642"}],"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=29641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}