2015 AFC Champions League group stage

The 2015 AFC Champions League group stage was played from 24 February to 6 May 2015. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout stage of the 2015 AFC Champions League.^[1]

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 11 December 2014, 16:00 UTC+8, at the Petaling Jaya Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[2] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

The following 32 teams (16 from West Zone, 16 from East Zone) were entered into the group stage draw, which included the 24 automatic qualifiers and the eight qualifying play-off winners, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw:

Zone	Teams
West Zone (Groups A–D)	Al-Nassr Al-Shabab Al-Hilal Foolad Tractor Sazi Persepolis Pakhtakor Lokomotiv Tashkent Nasaf Qarshi Al-Ahli Al-Ain Lekhwiya Al-Ahli (Winner Play-off West 1) Naft Tehran (Winner Play-off West 2) Bunyodkor (Winner Play-off West 3) Al-Sadd (Winner Play-off West 4)
East Zone (Groups E–H)	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Seongnam FC Suwon Samsung Bluewings Gamba Osaka Urawa Red Diamonds Kashima Antlers Brisbane Roar Western Sydney Wanderers Guangzhou Evergrande Shandong Luneng Taishan Buriram United Becamex Bình Dương FC Seoul (Winner Play-off East 1) Kashiwa Reysol (Winner Play-off East 2) Guangzhou R&F (Winner Play-off East 3) Beijing Guoan (Winner Play-off East 4)

Format

In the group stage, each group was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the round of 16.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[1]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Greater number of away goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
5. If, after applying criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 apply;
6. Goal difference in all the group matches;
7. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
8. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
9. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
10. Team who belongs to the member association with the higher AFC ranking.

Groups

The matchdays were 24–25 February, 3–4 March, 17–18 March, 7–8 April, 21–22 April, and 5–6 May 2015.^[3]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		LEK	PER	NSR	BYD
1	Lekhwiya	6	4	1	1	9	5	+4	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–0	1–1	1–0
2	Persepolis	6	4	0	2	7	7	0	12			3–0	—	1–0	2–1
3	Al-Nassr	6	2	2	2	7	6	+1	8			1–3	3–0	—	1–1
4	Bunyodkor	6	0	1	5	2	7	−5	1			0–1	0–1	0–1	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AIN	NAF	PAK	SHB
1	Al-Ain	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	12	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–0	1–1	0–0
2	Naft Tehran	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			1–1	—	1–1	2–1
3	Pakhtakor	6	1	3	2	6	8	−2	6			0–1	2–1	—	0–2
4	Al-Shabab	6	1	2	3	5	8	−3	5			0–1	0–3	2–2	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		HIL	SAD	FOO	LOK
1	Al-Hilal	6	4	1	1	9	4	+5	13	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	2–0	3–1
2	Al-Sadd	6	3	1	2	9	9	0	10			1–0	—	1–0	6–2
3	Foolad	6	1	3	2	2	4	−2	6			0–0	0–0	—	1–0
4	Lokomotiv Tashkent	6	1	1	4	10	13	−3	4			1–2	5–0	1–1	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AHS	AHU	NSF	TRA
1	Al-Ahli	6	3	3	0	11	7	+4	12	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	2–1	2–0
2	Al-Ahli	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			3–3	—	0–0	3–2
3	Nasaf Qarshi	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8			0–0	0–1	—	2–1
4	Tractor Sazi	6	1	1	4	7	11	−4	4			2–2	1–0	1–2	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KSW	JHM	SLT	BBD
1	Kashiwa Reysol	6	3	2	1	14	9	+5	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	3–2	2–1	5–1
2	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6	3	2	1	14	6	+8	11			0–0	—	4–1	3–0
3	Shandong Luneng Taishan	6	2	1	3	13	17	−4	7			4–4	1–4	—	3–1
4	Becamex Bình Dương	6	1	1	4	6	15	−9	4			1–0	1–1	2–3	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GAM	SNM	BUR	GRF
1	Gamba Osaka	6	3	1	2	10	7	+3	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	2–1	1–1	0–2
2	Seongnam FC	6	3	1	2	7	5	+2	10			2–0	—	2–1	0–0
3	Buriram United	6	3	1	2	12	7	+5	10			1–2	2–1	—	5–0
4	Guangzhou R&F	6	1	1	4	3	13	−10	4			0–5	0–1	1–2	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BJG	SSB	BRI	URA
1	Beijing Guoan	6	3	2	1	6	3	+3	11	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–0	0–1	2–0
2	Suwon Samsung Bluewings	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11			1–1	—	3–1	2–1
3	Brisbane Roar	6	2	1	3	7	9	−2	7			0–1	3–3	—	1–2
4	Urawa Red Diamonds	6	1	1	4	5	9	−4	4			1–1	1–2	0–1	—

---

---

---

---

---

Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		GET	SEO	WSW	KSM
1	Guangzhou Evergrande	6	3	1	2	9	9	0	10	Advance to knockout stage		—	1–0	0–2	4–3
2	FC Seoul	6	2	3	1	5	4	+1	9			0–0	—	0–0	1–0
3	Western Sydney Wanderers	6	2	2	2	9	7	+2	8			2–3	1–1	—	1–2
4	Kashima Antlers	6	2	0	4	10	13	−3	6			2–1	2–3	1–3	—

---

---

---

---

---

References

External links

• AFC Champions League, the-AFC.com