20th Asian Club Championship 2000/2001 - Quarter-finals

Asia’s premier club tournament, the 20th Asian Club Championship 2000/2001 has reached the quarterfinals stage and the eight remaining teams all stand an equal chance of qualifying for the semi-finals of the competition.

In the West Asian group, defending champions, Al-Hilal face stiff opposition in the form of Iran’s Pirouzi, Irtysh Pavlodar from Kazakhstan and fellow Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad.

Fresh from winning last month’s Asian Super Cup, Al-Hilal are definitely on song at the moment and this was evident as the team came through the first two rounds of the tournament in comfortable fashion, overcoming Al-Karameh of Syria and then Kuwaiti outfit Al-Salmiya.

Pirouzi also did not face much resistance in the early stages defeating Qatari club Al-Wakrah and Al-Ain of the United Arab Emirates. The Pirouzi front-line scored an astonishing 13 goals in the process.

Pirouzi will host the West Asian quarterfinals and all matches will be played at the cavernous Azadi Stadium in Tehran .

The fanatical support of the home fans will be a major factor in the home side’s chances of making it to the last four. The West Asian quarterfinals will be from 7-11 March 2001.

The four East Asian quarterfinalists are PSM Makassar of Indonesia, Korea Republic’s Suwon Samsung, Shandong of China PR and 1998 Asian Club champions Jubilo Iwata from Japan.

The tournament will be the last chance for glory this season for Suwon Samsung as the club’s two year reign as K-League champions were brought to an end by the Anyang Cheetahs.

Jubilo Iwata also suffered a similar fate, as the club no longer rules the roost in the J-League after losing out to the likes of Kashima Antlers, Gamba Osaka and Kashiwa Reysol.

Both Suwon Samsung and Jubilo Iwata will be hoping to regain some lustre at the Asian Club Championship after having failed dramatically at home.

The surprise package in the East Asian quartet is the Indonesian club, PSM Makassar. This team from the island of Sulawesi got to this stage after hammering Vietnameses champions Song Lam Nghe An and Thai champions Royal Thai Air Force. The latter losing 11-1 on aggregate to the rampant Indonesians.

The Indonesian club PSM Makassar have been nominated as the hosts for the East Asian group quarterfinals and all matches will be played at Makassar’s home ground, Mattoanging Makassar Stadium from 21-25 March 2001.

The format for the 20th Asian Club Championship 2000/2001 pits the four qualified sides from each region in a centralised league on a round-robin basis with the top two teams from the league stage qualifying for the semi-finals.

from: AFC Website