2022 AFC Champions League group stage

The 2022 AFC Champions League group stage was played from 15 April to 1 May 2022 for the East Region and from 7 to 27 April 2022 for the West Region.^[1] A total of 40 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout stage of the 2022 AFC Champions League.^[2]

The draw for the group stage was held on 17 January 2022 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 40 teams were drawn into ten groups of four: five groups each in the West Region (Groups A–E) and the East Region (Groups F–J). For each region, teams were seeded into four pots and drawn into the relevant positions within each group, based on their association ranking and their seeding within their association, in consideration of the technical balance between groups. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

The following 40 teams entered into the group stage draw, which included the 33 direct entrants and the seven winners of the play-off round of the qualifying play-offs, whose identity was not known at the time of the draw.

Region	Groups	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
West Region	A–E	Al-Sadd	Al-Faisaly	Pakhtakor	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya[note 1]
		Al-Hilal	Sepahan	Al-Wehdat	Al-Taawoun (Winners of Play-off West 1)
		Foolad	Shabab Al-Ahli	Mumbai City	Nasaf Qarshi (Winners of Play-off West 2)
		Al-Jazira	Al-Rayyan	Istiklol	Sharjah (Winners of Play-off West 3)
		Al-Duhail	Al-Shabab	Ahal	Al-Gharafa[note 2]
East Region	F–J	Shandong Taishan	Urawa Red Diamonds	United City	Melbourne City[note 1]
		Kawasaki Frontale	Jeonnam Dragons	Kitchee[note 3]	Sydney FC (Winners of Play-off East 1)
		Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	Chiangrai United	Hoàng Anh Gia Lai	Vissel Kobe (Winners of Play-off East 2)
		BG Pathum United	Guangzhou	Johor Darul Ta'zim	Ulsan Hyundai (Winners of Play-off East 3)
		Shanghai Port[note 4]	Yokohama F. Marinos	Lion City Sailors	Daegu FC (Winners of Play-off East 4)

In the group stage, each group was played in a double round-robin format in centralised venues. The winners of each group and three best runners-up from each region advanced to the round of 16 of the knockout stage.

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 8.3):^[2]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; (not applicable since the matches were played in a centralised venue)
5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams playing each other in the last round of the group are tied;
9. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
10. Association ranking.

The schedule for each match day was as follows.^[4]

Match day	West Region	East Region
1	7–8 April	15–16 April
2	10–11 April	18–19 April
3	14–15 April	21–22 April
4	18–19 April	24–25 April
5	22–23 April	27–28 April
6	26–27 April	30 April – 1 May

On 16 February 2022, AFC confirmed hosts for the East group stage.^[5] On 3 March 2022, AFC confirmed hosts for the West group stage.^[6]

• Groups A and B: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Group C: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• Group D: Buraidah, Saudi Arabia
• Group E: Dammam, Saudi Arabia
• Groups F and J: Buriram, Thailand
• Group G: Bangkok, Thailand
• Group H: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Group I: Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		HIL	RYN	SHJ	IST
1	Al-Hilal (H)	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13[a]	Advance to Round of 16		—	0–2	2–1	1–0
2	Al-Rayyan	6	4	1	1	10	7	+3	13[a]			0–3	—	3–1	1–0
3	Sharjah	6	1	2	3	7	11	−4	5			2–2	1–1	—	2–1
4	Istiklol	6	1	0	5	5	10	−5	3			0–3	2–3	2–0	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SHB	MUM	QWJ	AJZ
1	Al-Shabab (H)	6	5	1	0	18	1	+17	16	Advance to Round of 16		—	6–0	3–0	3–0
2	Mumbai City	6	2	1	3	3	11	−8	7[a]			0–3	—	1–0	0–0
3	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	6	2	1	3	7	10	−3	7[a]			1–1	1–2	—	3–2
4	Al-Jazira	6	1	1	4	4	10	−6	4			0–2	1–0	1–2	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		FOO	SAH	GHA	AHA
1	Foolad	6	3	3	0	5	2	+3	12	Advance to Round of 16		—	1–1	0–0	1–0
2	Shabab Al-Ahli	6	2	4	0	14	7	+7	10			1–1	—	8–2	2–1
3	Al-Gharafa	6	1	2	3	7	14	−7	5			0–1	1–1	—	2–0
4	Ahal	6	1	1	4	6	9	−3	4			0–1	1–1	4–2	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		DUH	TWN	SEP	PAK
1	Al-Duhail	6	5	0	1	17	9	+8	15	Advance to Round of 16		—	1–2	5–2	3–2
2	Al-Taawoun (H)	6	2	1	3	13	12	+1	7[a]			3–4	—	3–0	0–1
3	Sepahan	6	2	1	3	8	12	−4	7[a]			0–1	1–1	—	2–1
4	Pakhtakor	6	2	0	4	10	15	−5	6			0–3	5–4	1–3	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		FAI	NAS	SAD	WEH
1	Al-Faisaly (H)	6	2	3	1	5	4	+1	9[a]	Advance to Round of 16		—	0–0	2–1	1–1
2	Nasaf Qarshi	6	2	3	1	8	5	+3	9[a]			0–1	—	3–1	2–0
3	Al-Sadd	6	2	1	3	10	11	−1	7			1–0	1–1	—	5–2
4	Al-Wehdat	6	1	3	2	9	12	−3	6			1–1	2–2	3–1	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		DAE	URA	LCS	SDT
1	Daegu FC	6	4	1	1	14	4	+10	13[a]	Advance to Round of 16		—	1–0	0–3	4–0
2	Urawa Red Diamonds	6	4	1	1	20	2	+18	13[a]			0–0	—	6–0	5–0
3	Lion City Sailors	6	2	1	3	8	14	−6	7			1–2	1–4	—	3–2
4	Shandong Taishan	6	0	1	5	2	24	−22	1			0–7	0–5	0–0	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		BGP	MCY	JND	UCT
1	BG Pathum United (H)	6	3	3	0	11	2	+9	12	Advance to Round of 16		—	1–1	0–0	5–0
2	Melbourne City	6	3	3	0	10	3	+7	12			0–0	—	2–1	3–0
3	Jeonnam Dragons	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8			0–2	1–1	—	2–0
4	United City	6	0	0	6	1	17	−16	0			1–3	0–3	0–1	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		YFM	JBH	HOA	SYD
1	Yokohama F. Marinos	6	4	1	1	9	3	+6	13	Advance to Round of 16		—	0–1	2–0	3–0
2	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	6	3	3	0	7	4	+3	12			1–1	—	1–0	0–0
3	Hoang Anh Gia Lai (H)	6	1	2	3	4	7	−3	5			1–2	1–1	—	1–0
4	Sydney FC	6	0	2	4	3	9	−6	2			0–1	2–3	1–1	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		JDT	KSF	ULS	GZH
1	Johor Darul Ta'zim (H)	6	4	1	1	11	7	+4	13	Advance to Round of 16		—	0–5	2–1	5–0
2	Kawasaki Frontale	6	3	2	1	17	4	+13	11			0–0	—	1–1	1–0
3	Ulsan Hyundai	6	3	1	2	14	7	+7	10			1–2	3–2	—	3–0
4	Guangzhou	6	0	0	6	0	24	−24	0			0–2	0–8	0–5	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		VKO	KIT	CRU	SHP
1	Vissel Kobe	4	2	2	0	10	3	+7	8	Advance to Round of 16		—	2–1	6–0	Canc.
2	Kitchee	4	2	1	1	7	6	+1	7			2–2	—	1–0	Canc.
3	Chiangrai United (H)	4	0	1	3	2	10	−8	1			0–0	2–3	—	Canc.
4	Shanghai Port	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew[7]		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

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Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A	Al-Rayyan	6	4	1	1	10	7	+3	13	Advance to Round of 16
2	C	Shabab Al-Ahli	6	2	4	0	14	7	+7	10
3	E	Nasaf Qarshi	6	2	3	1	8	5	+3	9
4	D	Al-Taawoun	6	2	1	3	13	12	+1	7
5	B	Mumbai City	6	2	1	3	3	11	−8	7

As Group J only had three teams remaining, the results against fourth-placed teams in Groups F–I were omitted in this ranking.^[7]

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	H	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	4	2	2	0	3	1	+2	8	Advance to Round of 16
2	F	Urawa Red Diamonds	4	2	1	1	10	2	+8	7
3	J	Kitchee	4	2	1	1	7	6	+1	7
4	G	Melbourne City	4	1	3	0	4	3	+1	6
5	I	Kawasaki Frontale	4	1	2	1	8	4	+4	5

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