2007 AFC Champions League final

2007 AFC Champions League final
Event	2007 AFC Champions League
First leg
Date	7 November 2007
Venue	Foolad Shahr Stadium, Fooladshahr
Referee	Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh
Attendance	30,000
Second leg
Date	14 November 2007
Venue	Saitama Stadium, Saitama
Referee	Ravshan Irmatov
Attendance	59,034
	← 2006 2008 →

The 2007 AFC Champions League Final was a two-legged association football tie to determine the 2007 champions of Asian club football. Urawa Red Diamonds from Japan defeated Iran's Sepahan 3-1 on aggregate to take the title. The first leg took place on 7 November 2007 at 16:00 local time (UTC+3:30) at Foolad Shahr Stadium in Fooladshahr, Isfahan in Iran and the second leg took place on 14 November 2007 at 19:20 local time (UTC+9) at Saitama Stadium, Saitama, Japan.

This was the first final to feature clubs from Iran and Japan. This was the first AFC Champions League final involving an Iranian club, and the first in an Asian top club football competition since PAS Tehran in the 1992–93 Asian Club Championship. The winners, Urawa Red Diamonds, received US$600,000 prize money and qualified to represent Asia in the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup. Although they were defeated, Sepahan still competed in the FIFA Club World Cup by replacing the host country berth, which is reserved for the J. League champions.

Format

The rules for the final were exactly the same as for the previous knockout rounds. The tie was contested over two legs with away goals deciding the winner if the two teams were level on goals after the second leg. If the teams could still not be separated at that stage then extra time would have been played with a penalty shootout taking place if the teams were still level after that.

Route to the final

Sepahan

Opponents	Round	H/A	Score¹	Sepahan goalscorers
Al Ittihad	Group Stage	H	2–1	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi(2)
Al Shabab	Group Stage	A	1–0	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi
Al Ain	Group Stage	A	2–3	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi, Emad Mohammed
Al Ain	Group Stage	H	1–1	Hossein Papi
Al Ittihad	Group Stage	A	5–0	Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail, Mohammad Nouri(2), Emad Mohammed(2)
Al Shabab	Group Stage	H	1–0	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi
Kawasaki Frontale	Quarter Final, Leg 1	H	0–0
Kawasaki Frontale	Quarter Final, Leg 2	A	0–0(p5–4)
Al Wahda	Semi Final, Leg 1	H	3–1	Mahmoud Karimi(2), Moharram Navidkia
Al Wahda	Semi Final, Leg 2	A	0–0

¹Sepahan's goals always recorded first.

Urawa Red Diamonds

Opponents	Round	H/A	Score¹	Urawa Reds goalscorers
Persik Kediri	Group Stage	H	3–0	Yamada, Nagai, Ono
Sydney FC	Group Stage	A	2–2	Ponte, Nagai
Shanghai Shenhua	Group Stage	H	1–0	Abe
Shanghai Shenhua	Group Stage	A	0–0
Persik Kediri	Group Stage	A	3–3	Ono, Ponte, Abe
Sydney FC	Group Stage	H	0–0
Jeonbuk Motors	Quarter Final, Leg 1	H	2–1	Hasebe, Tatsuya Tanaka
Jeonbuk Motors	Quarter Final, Leg 2	A	2–0	Tatsuya Tanaka, Own Goal
Seongnam Ilhwa	Semi Final, Leg 1	A	2–2	Tatsuya Tanaka, Ponte
Seongnam Ilhwa	Semi Final, Leg 2	H	2–2(p5–3)	Washington, Hasebe

¹Urawa Red Diamonds' goals always recorded first.

Final summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sepahan	1–3	Urawa Red Diamonds	1–1	0–2

First leg

7 November 2007

16:00 (UTC+3:30)

Sepahan	1 – 1	Urawa Red Diamonds
Mahmoud Karimi 47'		Robson Ponte 45'

Foolad Shahr Stadium, Fooladshahr

Attendance: 30,000

Referee:

Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh

Sepahan

Urawa Reds


SEPAHAN:
GK	1	Abbas Mohammadi
DF	5	Hadi Aghili
DF	8	Mohsen Bengar
DF	17	Jaba Mujiri
MF	4	Moharram Navidkia (c)
MF	6	Jalal Akbari		46'
MF	12	Abdul-Wahab Abu Al-Hail
MF	21	Saeid Bayat
MF	28	Ehsan Hajsafi	60'
FW	13	Mahmoud Karimi		67'
FW	20	Emad Mohammed		46'
Substitutes:
GK	22	Mohammad Savari
GK	24	Masoud Homami
DF	2	Hamid Azizzadeh
DF	7	Farshad Bahadorani
MF	11	Hossein Kazemi		67'
FW	18	Mohsen Hamidi		46'
MF	19	Jalaleddin Alimohammadi
FW	23	Mehdi Seyed-Salehi
MF	25	Ebrahim Loveinian		46'
MF	29	Behzad Soltani
MF	30	Hossein Papi
Manager:
Luka Bonačić


URAWA REDS:
GK	23	Ryota Tsuzuki
DF	2	Keisuke Tsuboi
DF	5	Nenê
DF	20	Satoshi Horinouchi
MF	13	Keita Suzuki (c)
MF	22	Yuki Abe
MF	17	Makoto Hasebe
MF	14	Tadaaki Hirakawa
MF	10	Robson Ponte
FW	21	Washington
FW	9	Yuichiro Nagai	73'
Substitutes:
GK	1	Norihiro Yamagishi
GK	28	Nobuhiro Kato
DF	12	Shunsuke Tsutsumi
DF	19	Hideki Uchidate
MF	3	Hajime Hosogai
MF	16	Takahito Soma
MF	27	Yoshiya Nishizawa
MF	30	Masayuki Okano
FW	11	Tatsuya Tanaka	73'
FW	18	Junki Koike
Manager:
Holger Osieck

Second leg

14 November 2007

19:20 (UTC+9)

Urawa Red Diamonds	2 – 0	Sepahan
Yuichiro Nagai 22' Yuki Abe 71'

Saitama Stadium, Saitama

Attendance: 59,034