2016 AFC Cup group stage

The 2016 AFC Cup group stage was played from 23 February to 11 May 2016.^[1] A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 16 places in the knockout stage of the 2016 AFC Cup.^[2]

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held on 10 December 2015, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the Petaling Jaya Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[3] The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.^[4][5]

The seeding of each team in the draw was determined by their association and their qualifying position within their association. The mechanism of the draw was as follows:^[6]

• For the West Zone, a draw was held for the three associations with two direct entrants (Iraq, Jordan, Oman) to determine the seeds 1 placed in order for Groups A, B and C. The remaining teams were then allocated to the groups according to the rules set by AFC.
• For the East Zone, a draw was held for the seven associations with two direct entrants (Hong Kong, Myanmar, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Maldives, Philippines) to determine the four associations occupying seeds 1 and 2, with seeds 1 placed in order for Groups E, F, G and H, and the three associations occupying seeds 3 and 4, with seeds 3 placed in order for Groups E, F and G. The remaining teams were then allocated to the groups according to the rules set by AFC.

The following 32 teams (16 from West Zone, 16 from East Zone) entered into the group stage draw, which included the 28 direct entrants and the four winners of the qualifying play-off, whose identity were not known at the time of the draw.^[3]

Zone	Seed 1	Seed 2	Seed 3	Seed 4
West Zone (Groups A–D)	Naft Al-Wasat	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	Al-Jaish	Al-Hidd (Winner Play-off 1)
	Al-Wehdat[A]	Al-Faisaly	Shabab Al-Dhahiriya	Tripoli (Winner Play-off 2)
	Al-Oruba	Fanja	Istiklol	Al-Wahda (Winner Play-off 3)
	Al-Muharraq	Al-Ahed	Altyn Asyr	Ahli Al-Khaleel (Winner Play-off 4)
East Zone (Groups E–H)	Kitchee[A]	South China	Yangon United[A]	Ayeyawady United
	Johor Darul Ta'zim[A]	Selangor	New Radiant	Maziya
	Mohun Bagan[A]	Bengaluru FC	Ceres	Kaya
	Tampines Rovers[A]	Balestier Khalsa	Lao Toyota FC	Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi (Winner qualifying round Group B)[B]

Notes

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.^[2]

Tiebreakers

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 would be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 11.5):^[2]

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.

Schedule

The schedule of each matchday was as follows.^[1][2]

Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	23–24 February 2016	Team 1 vs. Team 4, Team 3 vs. Team 2
Matchday 2	8–9 March 2016	Team 4 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 1
Matchday 3	15–16 March 2016	Team 4 vs. Team 2, Team 1 vs. Team 3
Matchday 4	12–13 April 2016	Team 2 vs. Team 4, Team 3 vs. Team 1
Matchday 5	26–27 April 2016	Team 4 vs. Team 1, Team 2 vs. Team 3
Matchday 6	10–11 May 2016	Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4

Groups

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		AHE	WEH	HID	ALT
1	Al-Ahed	6	4	0	2	14	9	+5	12	Knockout stage		—	3–2	1–0	3–0
2	Al-Wehdat	6	2	2	2	10	12	−2	8			3–2	—	2–0	1–1
3	Al-Hidd	6	2	1	3	11	12	−1	7			2–5	6–2	—	1–1
4	Altyn Asyr	6	1	3	2	5	7	−2	6			2–0	0–0	1–2	—

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		NAF	FAI	TRI	IST
1	Naft Al-Wasat	6	5	0	1	9	3	+6	15	Knockout stage		—	1–0	1–0	2–0
2	Al-Faisaly	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	11			2–1	—	3–1	4–2
3	Tripoli	6	2	1	3	8	10	−2	7			1–3	1–1	—	2–1
4	Istiklol	6	0	1	5	4	12	−8	1			0–1	0–0	1–3	—

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Notes

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		QUW	WAH	DHA	ORU
1	Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya	6	5	0	1	15	7	+8	15	Knockout stage		—	1–0	4–1	2–1
2	Al-Wahda	6	3	0	3	11	9	+2	9			5–2	—	0–3[lower-alpha 1]	2–1
3	Shabab Al-Dhahiriya	6	2	1	3	7	10	−3	7			0–2	0–3[lower-alpha 2]	—	2–0
4	Al-Oruba	6	1	1	4	5	12	−7	4			0–4	2–1	1–1	—

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Notes

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MHQ	JAI	KHA	FAN
1	Al-Muharraq	6	5	1	0	9	3	+6	16	Knockout stage		—	1–0	2–1	1–0
2	Al-Jaish	6	3	1	2	5	3	+2	10			0–2	—	1–0	1–0
3	Ahli Al-Khaleel	6	1	2	3	7	11	−4	5			1–1	0–3[lower-alpha 1]	—	2–1
4	Fanja	6	0	2	4	5	9	−4	2			1–2	0–0	3–3	—

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Notes

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		CER	TAM	SEL	SJD
1	Ceres	6	3	3	0	12	4	+8	12	Knockout stage		—	2–1	2–2	5–0
2	Tampines Rovers	6	3	1	2	10	6	+4	10			1–1	—	1–0	4–0
3	Selangor	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			0–0	0–1	—	2–1
4	Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi	6	1	0	5	7	19	−12	3			0–2	3–2	3–4	—

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Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KIT	KAY	BAL	NRA
1	Kitchee	6	4	1	1	8	1	+7	13	Knockout stage		—	1–0	4–0	0–0
2	Kaya	6	3	1	2	5	2	+3	10			0–1	—	1–0	1–0
3	Balestier Khalsa	6	2	1	3	6	10	−4	7			1–0	0–3	—	3–0
4	New Radiant	6	0	3	3	2	8	−6	3			0–2	0–0	2–2	—

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Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MOH	SCA	YAN	MAZ
1	Mohun Bagan	6	3	2	1	14	9	+5	11	Knockout stage		—	0–3	3–2	5–2
2	South China	6	3	0	3	9	9	0	9			0–4	—	2–1	2–0
3	Yangon United	6	2	2	2	10	10	0	8			1–1	2–1	—	3–2
4	Maziya	6	1	2	3	8	13	−5	5			1–1	2–1	1–1	—

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Group H

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		JDT	BFC	AYE	LAO
1	Johor Darul Ta'zim	6	6	0	0	21	3	+18	18	Knockout stage		—	3–0	8–1	3–0
2	Bengaluru FC	6	3	0	3	9	10	−1	9			0–1	—	5–3	2–1
3	Ayeyawady United	6	2	0	4	12	20	−8	6			1–2	0–1	—	4–2
4	Lao Toyota FC	6	1	0	5	8	17	−9	3			1–4	2–1	2–3	—

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References

External links

• AFC Cup, the-AFC.com