AFC Champions League 2004

The second season of the AFC Champions League took place between February 10 and December 1, 2004 . In contrast to the first season , some changes took place here:

• From now on only the 14 most developed associations in Asia were allowed to participate, the remaining teams played either for the AFC Cup or the AFC President's Cup
• The qualification phase has been abolished, instead the 28 champions and cup winners of the individual associations play directly in the group phase
• The defending champion Al-Ain was automatically qualified for the knockout round .

Group stage

BYE: Al Ain Club 

Group A

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Paxtakor Tashkent	3	2	1	0	003: 100	+2	05: 10
2.	Zob Ahan Isfahan	4th	1	2	1	004: 500	−1	04: 40
3.	Qatar Sports Club	4th	0	1	3	004-000	+4	01: 70
4th	Bahrain Riffa Club	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00-00

Group B

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Al Wahda	4th	1	3	0	003-000	+3	05: 30
2.	Al-Sadd	4th	1	2	1	001: 100	± 0	04: 40
3.	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	4th	1	1	2	001: 400	−3	03: 50
4th	Al Qadsia Kuwait	0	0	0	0	000-000	± 0	00-00

Group C

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Al-Sharjah	4th	3	1	0	010: 400	+6	07: 10
2.	Al Hilal	4th	2	1	1	006: 600	± 0	05: 30
3.	Al Shurta	4th	0	0	4th	003: 900	−6	00: 80

Group D

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Al-Ittihad	6th	4th	1	1	014: 400	+10	09: 30
2.	Sepahan Isfahan	6th	4th	1	1	015:100	+5	09: 30
3.	Al Arabi	6th	2	2	2	008:100	−2	06: 60
4th	Neftchi Farg'ona	6th	0	0	6th	005:180	−13	00:12

Group E

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6th	4th	0	2	014: 500	+9	08: 40
2.	Jubilo Iwata	6th	4th	0	2	014:110	+3	08: 40
3.	Shanghai Shenhua	6th	3	0	3	007: 900	−2	06: 60
4th	BEC Tero Sasana	6th	1	0	5	006:160	−10	02:10

Group F.

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Dalian Shide	6th	5	0	1	011: 500	+6	10: 20
2.	Hoang Anh	6th	2	1	3	010:100	± 0	05: 70
3.	Krung Thai	6th	2	1	3	008:110	−3	05: 70
4th	PSM macassar	6th	2	0	4th	009:120	−3	04: 80

Group G

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	6th	5	0	1	024: 400	+20	10: 20
2.	Marinos	6th	5	0	1	019: 300	+16	10: 20
3.	Persik Kediri	6th	1	1	4th	005:270	−22	03: 90
4th	Pisico Bình Định	6th	0	1	5	003:170	−14	01:11

Quarter finals

	total		First leg	Return leg
Al Ain Club	1: 5	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	0: 1	1: 4
Dalian Shide	1: 2	Al-Ittihad	1: 1	0: 1
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	8: 5	Al-Sharjah	6-0	2: 5
Al Wahda	1: 5	Paxtakor Tashkent	1: 1	0: 4

After the quarter-finals, the teams from the Emirates suddenly disappeared from the competition and only the traditional Saudi club Al-Ittihad represented the Arab world against a supposed Korean superiority. Pakhtakor from Tashkent once again made it into the semi-finals as a blatant underdog.

Semifinals

	total		First leg	Return leg
Al-Ittihad	4: 3	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	2: 1	2: 2
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	2-0	Paxtakor Tashkent	0-0	2-0

Al-Ittihad destroyed all dreams of a purely Korean final in the 88th minute of the semi-final second leg against Chonbuk (which had meanwhile taken a 2-1 lead by former German international Paulo Rink ). Thus, in the finals on November 24th and December 1st, 2004 (in Jeddah and Seongnam ) two clubs met each other, both of which already had an Asian cup in their showcase:

final

	total		First leg	Return leg
Al-Ittihad	6: 3	Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma	1: 3	5-0

Surprisingly, Al-Ittihad managed to make up for an unfavorable home defeat in the first leg and hold the cup in Arabia.