2007 AFC Champions League final

2007 AFC Champions League final

Event	2007 AFC Champions League
Sepahan Urawa Red Diamonds 1 3
First leg
Sepahan Urawa Red Diamonds 1 1
Date	7 November 2007
Venue	Foolad Shahr Stadium, Fooladshahr
Referee	Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh
Attendance	30,000
Second leg
Urawa Red Diamonds Sepahan 2 0
Date	14 November 2007
Venue	Saitama Stadium, Saitama
Referee	Ravshan Irmatov
Attendance	59,034

The 2007 AFC Champions League final was a two-legged association football tie to determine the 2007 champions of Asian club football. Urawa Red Diamonds from Japan defeated Iran's Sepahan 3-1 on aggregate to take the title. The first leg took place on 7 November 2007 at 16:00 local time (UTC+3:30) at Foolad Shahr Stadium in Fooladshahr, Isfahan in Iran and the second leg took place on 14 November 2007 at 19:20 local time (UTC+9) at Saitama Stadium, Saitama, Japan.

This was the first final to feature clubs from Iran and Japan. This was the first AFC Champions League final involving an Iranian club, and the first in an Asian top club football competition since PAS Tehran in the 1992–93 Asian Club Championship. The winners, Urawa Red Diamonds, received US$600,000 prize money and qualified to represent Asia in the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup. Although they were defeated, Sepahan still competed in the FIFA Club World Cup by replacing the normal host country berth, which is reserved for the J. League champions.

Format

The rules for the final were exactly the same as for the previous knockout rounds. The tie was contested over two legs with away goals deciding the winner if the two teams were level on goals after the second leg. If the teams could still not be separated at that stage then extra time would have been played with a penalty shootout taking place if the teams were still level after that.

Route to the final

Further information: AFC Champions League 2007

Sepahan

Opponents	Round	H/A	Score1	Sepahan goalscorers
Al Ittihad	Group Stage	H	2–1	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi(2)
Al Shabab	Group Stage	A	1–0	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi
Al Ain	Group Stage	A	2–3	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi, Emad Mohammed
Al Ain	Group Stage	H	1–1	Hossein Papi
Al Ittihad	Group Stage	A	5–0	Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail, Mohammad Nouri(2), Emad Mohammed(2)
Al Shabab	Group Stage	H	1–0	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi
Kawasaki Frontale	Quarter Final, Leg 1	H	0–0
Kawasaki Frontale	Quarter Final, Leg 2	A	0–0(p5–4)
Al Wahda	Semi Final, Leg 1	H	3–1	Mahmoud Karimi(2), Moharram Navidkia
Al Wahda	Semi Final, Leg 2	A	0–0

¹Sepahan's goals always recorded first.

Urawa Red Diamonds

Opponents	Round	H/A	Score1	Urawa Reds goalscorers
Persik Kediri	Group Stage	H	3–0	Yamada, Nagai, Ono
Sydney FC	Group Stage	A	2–2	Ponte, Nagai
Shanghai Shenhua	Group Stage	H	1–0	Abe
Shanghai Shenhua	Group Stage	A	0–0
Persik Kediri	Group Stage	A	3–3	Ono, Ponte, Abe
Sydney FC	Group Stage	H	0–0
Jeonbuk Motors	Quarter Final, Leg 1	H	2–1	Hasebe, Tatsuya Tanaka
Jeonbuk Motors	Quarter Final, Leg 2	A	2–0	Tatsuya Tanaka, Own Goal
Seongnam Ilhwa	Semi Final, Leg 1	A	2–2	Tatsuya Tanaka, Ponte
Seongnam Ilhwa	Semi Final, Leg 2	H	2–2(p5–3)	Washington, Hasebe

¹Urawa Red Diamonds' goals always recorded first.

Final summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sepahan	1–3	Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	0–2

First leg

7 November 2007

16:00 (UTC+3:30)

Sepahan	1 – 1	Urawa Red Diamonds
Mahmoud Karimi File:Soccerball shade.svg 47'		Robson Ponte File:Soccerball shade.svg 45'

Foolad Shahr Stadium, Fooladshahr

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh

File:Kit left arm.svg File:Kit body.svg File:Kit right arm.svg File:Kit shorts.svg File:Kit socks long.svg Sepahan

File:Kit left arm.svg File:Kit body.svg File:Kit right arm.svg File:Kit shorts.svg File:Kit socks long.svg Urawa Reds

SEPAHAN: GK 1 Abbas Mohammadi DF 5 Hadi Aghili DF 8 Mohsen Bengar DF 17 Jaba Mujiri MF 4 Moharram Navidkia (c) MF 6 Jalal Akbari downward-facing red arrow 46' MF 12 Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail MF 21 Saeid Bayat MF 28 Ehsan Hajsafi Yellow card 60' FW 13 Mahmoud Karimi downward-facing red arrow 67' FW 20 Emad Mohammed downward-facing red arrow 46' Substitutes: GK 22 Mohammad Savari GK 24 Masoud Homami DF 2 Hamid Azizzadeh DF 7 Farshad Bahadorani MF 11 Hossein Kazemi upward-facing green arrow 67' FW 18 Mohsen Hamidi upward-facing green arrow 46' MF 19 Jalaleddin Alimohammadi FW 23 Mehdi Seyed-Salehi MF 25 Ebrahim Loveinian upward-facing green arrow 46' MF 29 Behzad Soltani MF 30 Hossein Papi Manager: Luka Bonačić

URAWA REDS: GK 23 Ryota Tsuzuki RB 2 Keisuke Tsuboi CB 5 Nenê CB 17 Makoto Hasebe LB 20 Satoshi Horinouchi CM 13 Keita Suzuki (c) CM 22 Yuki Abe RW 14 Tadaaki Hirakawa AM 10 Robson Ponte LW 9 Yuichiro Nagai downward-facing red arrow 73' CF 21 Washington Substitutes: GK 1 Norihiro Yamagishi GK 28 Nobuhiro Kato DF 12 Shunsuke Tsutsumi DF 19 Hideki Uchidate MF 3 Hajime Hosogai MF 16 Takahito Soma MF 27 Yoshiya Nishizawa MF 30 Masayuki Okano FW 11 Tatsuya Tanaka upward-facing green arrow 73' FW 18 Junki Koike Manager: Holger Osieck

Second leg

14 November 2007

19:20 (UTC+9)

Urawa Red Diamonds	2 – 0	Sepahan
Yuichiro Nagai File:Soccerball shade.svg 22' Yuki Abe File:Soccerball shade.svg 71'

Saitama Stadium, Saitama

Attendance: 59,034

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov

File:Kit left arm.svg File:Kit body.svg File:Kit right arm.svg File:Kit shorts.svg File:Kit socks long.svg Urawa Reds

File:Kit left arm.svg File:Kit body.svg File:Kit right arm.svg File:Kit shorts.svg File:Kit socks long.svg Sepahan

URAWA REDS: GK 23 Ryota Tsuzuki RB 2 Keisuke Tsuboi CB 17 Makoto Hasebe Yellow card 55' CB 4 Marcus Túlio Tanaka LB 20 Satoshi Horinouchi CM 13 Keita Suzuki (c) CM 22 Yuki Abe RW 14 Tadaaki Hirakawa AM 10 Robson Ponte downward-facing red arrow 80' LW 9 Yuichiro Nagai downward-facing red arrow 85' CF 21 Washington downward-facing red arrow 89' Substitutes: GK 1 Norihiro Yamagishi DF 5 Nenê DF 12 Shunsuke Tsutsumi DF 19 Hideki Uchidate upward-facing green arrow 80' MF 16 Takahito Soma MF 30 Masayuki Okano upward-facing green arrow 89' FW 11 Tatsuya Tanaka upward-facing green arrow 85' FW 18 Junki Koike Manager: Holger Osieck

SEPAHAN: GK 1 Abbas Mohammadi DF 5 Hadi Aghili DF 8 Mohsen Bengar DF 17 Jaba Mujiri MF 4 Moharram Navidkia (c) MF 12 Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail MF 21 Saeid Bayat downward-facing red arrow 59' MF 25 Ebrahim Loveinian MF 28 Ehsan Hajsafi FW 18 Mohsen Hamidi downward-facing red arrow 46' FW 20 Emad Mohammed downward-facing red arrow 29' Substitutes: GK 22 Mohammad Savari GK 24 Masoud Homami DF 2 Hamid Azizzadeh DF 6 Jalal Akbari DF 7 Farshad Bahadorani MF 9 Hadi Jafari MF 11 Hossein Kazemi upward-facing green arrow 59' MF 19 Amir Radi MF 29 Behzad Soltani MF 30 Hossein Papi upward-facing green arrow 46' FW 13 Mahmoud Karimi upward-facing green arrow 29' FW 23 Mehdi Seyed-Salehi Manager: Luka Bonačić

See also

• 2007 AFC Champions League
• 2007 FIFA Club World Cup

External links

• (in Persian) Sepahan Official club website
• (in English) Urawa Red Diamonds Official Site