| Tourney Name: | AFC Champions League |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Num Teams: | 35 |
| Associations: | 10 |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: |  FC Seoul |
| Matches: | 126 |
| Goals: | 342 |
| Top Scorer: |  Muriqui(13 goals) |
| Player: | Muriqui |
| Prevseason: | 2012 |
| Nextseason: | 2014 |
The 2013 AFC Champions League was the 32nd edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 11th under the current AFC Champions League title. The defending champions, Ulsan Hyundai, failed to qualify for the tournament.
In the final, Chinese team Guangzhou Evergrande defeated South Korean team FC Seoul on away goals to win their first title,[1] becoming the first Chinese team to win the AFC Champions League (and the second Chinese team to be crowned Asian club champions after Liaoning FC and Third Final of Chinese team after Liaoning F.C. lost against Esteghlal F.C. of Iran at 1990–91 AFC Club Championship, and qualified for the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup.[2]
The AFC laid out the procedure for deciding the participating associations and the allocation of slots, with inspection of the associations interested in participating in the AFC Champions League to be done in 2012, and the final decision to be made by the AFC in November 2012.[3]
The following criteria for participation in the AFC Champions League were proposed by the AFC in July 2012:[4]
On 29 November 2012, the AFC Executive Committee approved the slots for the 2013 edition of the AFC Champions League. However, this final allocation of slots did not fully follow the proposal above.[5]
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Evaluation for 2013 AFC Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90EE77 width=20 | Fulfills criteria (> 600 points) | ||
| bgcolor=#ccffff width=20 | Does not fulfill criteria, but allocated slots | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Does not fulfill criteria, not allocated slots |
| +West Zone | |||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Group stage | width=15% | Play-off | ||
| 1 | Saudi Arabia | 860.5 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2 |  Qatar | 838.2 | 4 | 0 | |
| 3 |  Iran | 813.5 | 3 | 1 | |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates | 750.2 | 2 | 2 | |
| 5 |  Uzbekistan | 680.8 | 2 | 1 | |
| 6 |  India | −106.4 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 |  Jordan | −128.7 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 14 | 4 | |||
| +East Zone | |||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Group stage | width=15% | Play-off | ||
| 1 |  Japan | 946.8 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2 | South Korea | 886.6 | 4 | 0 | |
| 3 |  China PR | 796.7 | 4 | 0 | |
| 4 |  Australia | 567.0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 |  Thailand | 177.2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 6 | Singapore | −135.1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 | Vietnam | −815.7 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 15 | 2 | |||
The following teams entered the competition.
In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League.
| +West Zone | ||||
| Team | Qualifying method | App | Last App | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage direct entrants (Groups A–D) | ||||
| Al-Shabab | 2011–12 Saudi Professional League champions | 7th | 2011 | |
| Al-Ahli | 2012 King Cup of Champions winners 2011–12 Saudi Professional League runners-up | 6th | 2012 | |
| Al-Hilal | 2011–12 Saudi Professional League 3rd place | 9th | 2012 | |
| Al-Ettifaq | 2011–12 Saudi Professional League 4th place | 3rd | 2012 | |
| Lekhwiya | 2011–12 Qatar Stars League champions | 2nd | 2012 | |
| Al-Gharafa | 2012 Emir of Qatar Cup winners | 8th | 2012 | |
| El Jaish | 2011–12 Qatar Stars League runners-up | 1st | none | |
| Al-Rayyan | 2011–12 Qatar Stars League 3rd place | 5th | 2012 | |
| Sepahan | 2011–12 Iran Pro League champions | 9th | 2012 | |
| Esteghlal | 2011–12 Hazfi Cup winners 2011–12 Iran Pro League 3rd place | 6th | 2012 | |
| Tractor | 2011–12 Iran Pro League runners-up | 1st | none | |
| Al-Ain | 2011–12 UAE Pro-League champions | 8th | 2011 | |
| Al-Jazira | 2011–12 UAE President's Cup winners | 5th | 2012 | |
| Pakhtakor | 2012 Uzbek League champions | 11th | 2012 | |
| Qualifying play-off participants | ||||
| Saba Qom | 2011–12 Iran Pro League 4th place | 3rd | 2009 | |
| Al-Nasr | 2011–12 UAE Pro-League runners-up | 2nd | 2012 | |
| Al-Shabab Al-Arabi | 2011–12 UAE Pro-League 3rd place | 3rd | 2012 | |
| Lokomotiv Tashkent | 2012 Uzbek League 3rd place | 1st | none | |
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).[6]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying play-off | Round 1 | 6 December 2012 | 9 February 2013 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 26–27 February 2013 | ||
| Matchday 2 | 12–13 March 2013 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 2–3 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 9–10 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 23–24 April 2013 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 30 April–1 May 2013 | |||
| Knock-out stage | Round of 16 | 14–15 May 2013 | 21–22 May 2013 | |
| Quarter-finals | 20 June 2013 | 21 August 2013 | 18 September 2013 | |
| Semi-finals | 25 September 2013 | 2 October 2013 | ||
| Final | 25 or 26 October 2013 | 8 or 9 November 2013 | ||
The following changes in the format of the competition were made compared with the previous year:
See main article: 2013 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off.
The draw for the qualifying play-off was held on 6 December 2012.[9] Each tie was played as a single match, with extra time and penalty shoot-out used to decide the winner if necessary. The winners of each tie advanced to the group stage to join the 29 automatic qualifiers.[2]
|-!colspan=3|West Zone|-!colspan=3|East Zone|}
See main article: 2013 AFC Champions League group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held on 6 December 2012.[9] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. 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.
In the knock-out stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament. Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.[2]
In the round of 16, the winners of one group played the runners-up of another group in the same zone, with the group winners hosting the second leg.[2]
The draw for the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final (to decide the order of two legs) was held on 20 June 2013.[10] In this draw, teams from different zones could play each other, and the "country protection" rule was applied: if there are exactly two teams from the same association, they may not play each other in the quarter-finals; however, if there are more than two teams from the same association, they may play each other in the quarter-finals.
See main article: 2013 AFC Champions League Final.
| Award | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player[11] | Muriqui | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| Top Goalscorer[12] | Muriqui | Guangzhou Evergrande |
| +AFC Champions League 2013 Dream Team[13] | |||
| Starting XI | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Player | Team | |
| GK | Kim Yong-Dae | FC Seoul | |
| DF | Zhang Linpeng | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| DF | Hanif Omranzadeh | Esteghlal | |
| DF | Daisuke Suzuki | Kashiwa Reysol | |
| DF | Sun Xiang | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| MF | Zheng Zhi | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| MF |  Darío Conca | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| MF | Javad Nekounam | Esteghlal | |
| FW | Muriqui | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| FW |  Dejan Damjanović | FC Seoul | |
| FW | Elkeson | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| Substitutes | |||
| GK | Takanori Sugeno | Kashiwa Reysol | |
| DF | Kwak Tae-Hwi | Al-Shabab | |
| DF | Theeraton Bunmathan | Buriram United | |
| DF | Kim Jin-Kyu | FC Seoul | |
| MF | Ha Dae-Sung | FC Seoul | |
| MF | Jorge Wagner | Kashiwa Reysol | |
| FW | Masato Kudo | Kashiwa Reysol | |
| Rank | Player | Team | Total | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muriqui | Guangzhou Evergrande | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13 | ||||
| 2 | Darío Conca | Guangzhou Evergrande | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | ||||||||
| 3 | Dejan Damjanović | FC Seoul | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||
| Wagner Ribeiro | El Jaish | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Elkeson | Guangzhou Evergrande | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||
| Masato Kudo | Kashiwa Reysol | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Mustafa Al-Bassas | Al-Ahli | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Amad Al Hosni | Al-Ahli | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
 Djibril Cissé | Al-Gharafa | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Edgar | Al-Shabab Al-Arabi | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
 Youssef Msakni | Lekhwiya | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Sebastián Soria | Lekhwiya | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Sebastián Tagliabué | Al-Shabab | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Yun Il-Lok | FC Seoul | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |