| Tourney Name: | AFC Champions League |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Dates: | 4 February – 21 November 2015 |
| Num Teams: | 49 |
| Associations: | 21 |
| Count: | 2 |
| Second Other: | Al-Ahli |
| Matches: | 126 |
| Goals: | 334 |
| Player: |  Ricardo Goulart |
| Prevseason: | 2014 |
| Nextseason: | 2016 |
The 2015 AFC Champions League was the 34th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 13th under the current AFC Champions League title.
Guangzhou Evergrande won the tournament after defeating Al-Ahli in the final. Guangzhou also qualified for the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup.[1]
Western Sydney Wanderers were the defending champions, but they were eliminated in the group stage.
The AFC Competitions Committee proposed a revamp of the AFC club competitions on 25 January 2014,[2] which was ratified by the AFC Executive Committee on 16 April 2014.[3] The member associations are ranked based on their national team's and clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions, with the allocation of slots for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC club competitions determined by the 2014 rankings:[4]
The AFC Competitions Committee finalised the slot allocation for the 2015 and 2016 editions of the AFC Champions League based on the criteria, including AFC's MA rankings and the implementation of club licensing regulations, on 28 November 2014.[5] [6] [7]
| bgcolor=#f7f8ff colspan=2 | Participation for 2015 AFC Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| bgcolor=#90ee77 width=20 | Fulfills participation criteria | ||
| bgcolor=#ffcccc width=20 | Does not fulfill participation criteria |
| +West Zone | ||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | |||||
| Zone | All | |||||
| 1 | 2 | Saudi Arabia | 88.268 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 |  Iran | 80.794 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 5 |  Uzbekistan | 62.272 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | 7 | United Arab Emirates | 57.792 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | 9 |  Qatar | 56.103 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | 10 |  Iraq | 47.106 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 11 | Kuwait | 45.423 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | 12 |  Jordan | 44.309 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | 14 | Oman | 30.586 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 16 |  Bahrain | 25.547 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | 17 | Lebanon | 25.043 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | 19 |  Syria | 22.883 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 12 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 11 | ||||||
| +East Zone | |||||||
| Rank | Member Association | Points | Slots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage | Play-off | ||||||
| Zone | All | ||||||
| 1 | 1 |  South Korea | 94.866 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 4 |  Japan | 77.107 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 6 |  Australia | 57.940 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 8 |  China | 57.660 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 13 |  Thailand | 33.049 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 6 | 15 | Vietnam | 27.753 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | 18 |  Indonesia | 25.004 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | 20 |  Hong Kong | 20.077 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | 21 | Myanmar | 18.949 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 22 | Malaysia | 18.153 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | 23 |  India | 16.756 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | 24 | Singapore | 16.097 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 12 | 4 | 6 | 4 | |||
| 14 | |||||||
The following 49 teams from 21 associations entered the competition.[8]
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. TH means title holders.
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).[9]
| Stage | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary stage | Preliminary round 1 | No draw | 4 February 2015 | |
| Preliminary round 2 | 10 February 2015 | |||
| Play-off stage | Play-off round | 17 February 2015 | ||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 11 December 2014[10] | 24–25 February 2015 | |
| Matchday 2 | 3–4 March 2015 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 17–18 March 2015 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 7–8 April 2015 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 21–22 April 2015 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 5–6 May 2015 | |||
| Knockout stage | Round of 16 | 19–20 May 2015 | 26–27 May 2015 | |
| Quarter-finals | 18 June 2015[11] | 25–26 August 2015 | 15–16 September 2015 | |
| Semi-finals | 29–30 September 2015 | 20–21 October 2015 | ||
| Final | 7 November 2015 | 21 November 2015 | ||
See main article: 2015 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off.
The bracket for the qualifying play-off, which consisted of three rounds (preliminary round 1, preliminary round 2, and play-off round), was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team.[12] Each tie was played as a single match, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the match. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary. The winners of each tie in the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 24 automatic qualifiers. All losers in each round which were from associations with only play-off slots entered the 2015 AFC Cup group stage.[1]
See main article: 2015 AFC Champions League group stage.
The draw for the group stage was held on 11 December 2014.[12] 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.
See main article: 2015 AFC Champions League knockout stage.
In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a single-elimination tournament, with the teams split between the two zones until the final. 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.[1]
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.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 June 2015. Teams from different zones could not be drawn into the same tie, and there was no seeding or country protection, so teams from the same association could be drawn into the same tie.[13]
In the semi-finals, the matchups were determined by the quarter-final draw.[13]
See main article: 2015 AFC Champions League Final.
In the final, the finalist from the West Zone hosted the first leg, while the finalist from the East Zone hosted the second leg (no draw was held to determine the order of legs, as it was reversed from the previous season's final).[13]
| Award | Player | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player[14] | Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| Top Goalscorer | Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande | |
| Fair Play Award | — | Guangzhou Evergrande |
The AFC selected the following 11 players as 2015 AFC Champions League dream team.[15]
| Rank | Player | Team | Total | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ricardo Goulart | Guangzhou Evergrande | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Yang Xu | Shandong Luneng Taishan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||
| Ahmed Khalil | Al-Ahli | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||
| 4 |  Youssef Msakni | Lekhwiya | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||||||
| Omar Al Soma | Al-Ahli | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | ||||||||||||
 Asamoah Gyan | Al-Ain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Patric | Gamba Osaka | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Takashi Usami | Gamba Osaka | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Masato Kudo | Kashiwa Reysol | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Lee Dong-gook | Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Carlos Eduardo | Al-Hilal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Diogo | Buriram United | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Lima | Al-Ahli | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Everton Ribeiro | Al-Ahli | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |