AFC Champions League 2015 is holding its 3rd Section match of the Group Stage on 17-18 March. To get the victory as the selection of the strongest team in Asia, Kashiwa Reysol wants another victory to move on to the Knock-out Stage, the other teams which haven’t won as of yet, Gamba Osaka, Urawa Reds, and Kashima Antlers are eager to win the next match to stick to their initial aim to go through this Group Stage.

Kashiwa Reysol and Gamba Osaka are playing at their home grounds. Kashiwa Reysol plays against Shandong Luneng FC from China on 17th, and Gamba Osaka against Buriram United from Thailand on 18th.

Kashiwa drew the away match against one of Korea strongest teams Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, and then for the previous section they beat Binh Duong from Vietnam at their home ground. That made Kashiwa to be the top team of Group E on goal difference, leaving the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors behind. Kashiwa hasn’t lost any game since the victory of the ACL playoff in February, getting five consecutive wins including the J1 League match against Vegalta Sendai as they held on to 13th; they played persistently to equalise the match and got 7th place with the result of one win and one draw.

Shandong Luneng FC has its second year with the Head Coach, Cuca who successfully led Brazilian team Atletico Mineiro to be a champions of the Copa Libertadores. The team is joining in this ACL Championship for the 7th time after grabbing the victory of the China FA Cup last year, but they haven’t gone through to the Knock-out Stage of this AFC Champions League since 2005 when they moved on to the quarter final.

The team is in 3rd place of the group with one win and one loss. In the first match they beat Binh Duong from Vietnam away, but they allowed Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors to beat them at their home ground. Even though they could beat Guangzhou R&F, who has got 4 consecutive wins in the Chinese Super Cup at the penalty shootout, they haven’t been able to keep their level of play judging by the current results of Chinese Super Leaguewhich started on 7 March with one win and one defeat.

The team’s forward Yang Xu who made three goals in the previous four matches, and defender Dai Lin are not allowed to play this time because of being sent off and cautions. However, the other three Chinese international players such as forward Wang Yongpo who got two goals, and goalkeeper Wang Dalei who has experience in the AFC Asian Cup last January are expected to play persistently. Also the team has some foreign players like Brazilian forward Diego Tardelli and Argentinian midfielder Walter Montillo.

Kashiwa is expected to keep their strong defense and activate their attacking force in the front line to get the victory.

Gamba Osaka plays against Thai Champion

Gamba Osaka is playing against Buriram United from Thailand in Osaka. Buriram United got its 4th consecutive victory of the Thai League last year, and they have won the FA Cup Thailand　for the past three years. In the ACL, the team moved on to the quarter final in 2013. In this Champions League, they beat Korean Seongnam FC at their home ground, and Chinese Guangzhou R&F in the away match with the result of 2-0, and they are the top of Group F.

The team is in 11th place of 18 teams in their domestic league which started in mid February since they drew for the three previous matches after getting one victory at first of the league. However, Brazilian forward Gilberto Macena is in good form at the moment with five goals in the previous five matches of the season. Other players such as forward Diogo Luis who joined the team from Palmeiras and Thai international forward Prakit Deeprom have scored two goals each so far.

Gamba Osaka achieved treble in the last season domestically, but they have lost two matches so far in ACL. In the J1 League, they couldn’t win the match against Tosu on 14th with the score 0-1, even though they had many scoring chances mainly created by forward USAMI Takashi and forward Player Patric. Now the team is in the difficult situation being left in the 13th place with the result of 1 win and 1 lost. Gamba’s Head Coach HASEGAWA Kenta says “we do have more chances, but we have to have good finishing…” They are faced with improving their finishing skills to get the victory.

Kashima vs Guangzhou Evergrande, Urawa vs Beijin

Kashima is also in a challenging situation not being able to win for their previous 2 matches of ACL and J1 League. The Chinese opponent team Guangzhou Evergrande is the winner of AFC last year and they are now top of Group H. In this occasion, Gamba is playing against this strong team at their home stadium in China.

Fabio Cannavaro, former Italian international, is leading the team as the Head Coach of the team from this season and the team has seven national squad players for AFC Asian Cup 2015 and also Korean international defender Kim Young Gwon. Additionally, forward Goulart Pereira, who moved from Cruzeiro has contributed to the team’s two consecutive victories by scoring four goals in the previous ACL matches, including a hat trick in the match against Australian Western Sydney Wanderers for the previous second match in Australia. The team is in a positive mood after getting the two consecutive victories and being in 4th position in their domestic league.

Kashima allowed Shonan Bellmare, who came back to J1 League, to win the match from behind regardless of many scoring chances on the 14th. Kashima’s Head Coach Tonio Cerezo says “we have played two difficult matches in ACL and J. League but that doesn’t mean we can lose our confidence. We just keep doing what we should do and as a staff team we need to encourage the players to be confident even off the pitch.” As a team, they are trying to improve their condition. Check out if they can get a good output from their effort.

On the other hand, Urawa is playing against Beijing Guoan from China. They are playing on 17th in the opponent’s home stadium. Beijing Guoan is playing in this AFC Champions League through the playoff since they were in the 2nd place in the previous year’s league, and it is their 7th experience to play for this AFC in the past 8 years. This time, they are top of Group G by winning twice from the beginning of this Championship. They also got two consecutive victories in their domestic league and that means they have kept five clean sheet matches since ACL Playoff.

The team has defender Xu Yunlong who was a former Chinese international, and defender Zhang Chengdong who has just been a squad player for AFC Asian Cup in January. For the offensive player, midfielder Dejan Damjanovic who is Monte Negro international, and midfielder Pablo Batalla from Argentina are in good condition. The team also has a former Korean international midfielder Ha Dae Sung, who contributed to get the 2nd place of the AFC Champions League in 2013 as the team captain of FC Seoul.

Urawa lost by a reversal with 1-2 in the match against Suwon Samsung FC in Korea. They couldn’t beat Australian Brisbane Roar with 0-1 at their home match. However they have got 2 consecutive victories in J. League by beating Yamagata with 1-0, where midfielder ABE Yuki made a sharp middle shot. The team’s Head Coach Mihailo Petrovic says “I appreciate their persistent play to keep a clean sheet”, and he seems to have a sense of confidence for the future matches. We expect them to keep their level of play in the next match against Beijing.

AFC Champions League 2015
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