# 2002–03 AFC Champions League

The 2002–03 AFC Champions League was the twenty-second edition of Asia's premier football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and the first edition under the AFC Champions League title.
Sixteen teams competed in this edition as they went through qualifying before going into four groups of four with only the winner of the group qualifying to the knockout-stage which went to two-legs instead of the single leg that the previous year competition had.

## Teams

| Entry Round | Teams | Teams | Teams | Teams |
| Group Stage | West Asia | West Asia | East Asia | East Asia |
| Group Stage | Persepolis (1st) | Al-Talaba (1st) | Dalian Shide (1st) | Kashima Antlers (1st) |
| Group Stage | Al Hilal (1st) | Al Ain (1st) | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (1st) | BEC Tero Sasana (1st) |
| Third qualifying round | Esteghlal (CW) | Al-Zawraa | Shanghai Shenhua (2nd) | Shimizu S-Pulse (CW) |
| Third qualifying round | Al-Ahli (CW) | Al-Arabi (1st) | Daejeon Citizen (CW) | Osotsapa (2nd) |
| Third qualifying round | Al-Ittihad (1st) | Regar-TadAZ (1st) | Saigon Port (1st) | South China (CW) |
| Third qualifying round | Nisa Aşgabat (1st) | FK Neftchy Farg'ona (1st) | Club Valencia (1st) | Geylang United (1st) |
| Second qualifying round | Al Ahli (CW) | Al Sadd (CW) | DPMM (1st) | Mohun Bagan (1st) |
| Second qualifying round | Khujand (CR) | Pakhtakor (CW) | Churchill Brothers (2nd) | Petrokimia Putra (1st) |
| Second qualifying round | Al-Ahli (2nd) | Al-Faisaly (1st) | Persita Tangerang (2nd) | Monte Carlo (1st) |
| Second qualifying round | Al-Quds | Al-Jaish (1st) | New Radiant (CW) | Home United (CW) |
| Second qualifying round | | | Saunders SC (1st) | Air Force |
| First qualifying round | Busaiteen (2nd) | Riffa (CW) | | |
| First qualifying round | Al-Wehdat (2nd) | Zhashtyk (2nd) | | |
| First qualifying round | Al Kuwait (CW) | Al-Nejmeh (1st) | | |
| First qualifying round | Al Ansar (CW) | Al Nasr (CW) | | |
| First qualifying round | Al Aqsa | Al-Ittihad (2nd) | | |
| First qualifying round | Köpetdag Aşgabat (CW) | | | |

## Qualification Round
### First qualifying round

| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| West Region |||||
| Al-Wehdat | 3–2 | Al Nejmeh | 3–2 | 0–0 |
| Al Ansar | w/o$^1$ | Al Nasr | — | — |
| Al Aqsa | w/o$^2$ | Zhashtyk | — | — |
| Busaiteen | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Al Kuwait | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Köpetdag Aşgabat | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Riffa | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Al Ittihad | Bye | N/A | — | — |
1. Al Nasr withdrew
2. Al Aqsa withdrew

### Second qualifying round

| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| West Region |||||
| Al-Ansar | 1–3 | Al Faisaly | 1–0 | 0–3 |
| Pakhtakor | 4–3 | Al-Wehdat | 3–0 | 1–3 |
| Al Ahli | 3–3 (a) | Al Kuwait | 2–0 | 1–3 |
| Zhashtyk | 0–4 | Al-Ahli (San'a') | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| Köpetdag Aşgabat | w/o$^1$ | Al Sadd | — | — |
| Busaiteen | w/o$^2$ | Al-Jaish | — | — |
| Al-Quds | w/o$^2$ | Riffa | — | — |
| Al-Ittihad | w/o$^3$ | Khujand | — | — |
| East Region |||||
| Saunders SC | 1–7 | Mohun Bagan | 0–2 | 1–5 |
| Air Force | 2–3 | New Radiant | 1–1 | 1–2 (a.e.t.) |
| Monte Carlo | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| DPMM | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Persita Tangerang | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Petrokimia Putra | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Churchill Brothers | Bye | N/A | — | — |
| Home United | Bye | N/A | — | — |
1. Köpetdag Aşgabat withdrew citing financial difficulties.
2. AFC did not accept the participation of Busaiteen and Riffa as neither team met sportive qualification criteria.
3. Khujand disqualified following suspension of Tajik FA by FIFA and AFC.

### Third qualifying round

| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| West Region |||||
| Al Ittihad | 1–5 | Al Arabi | 1–1 | 0–4 |
| Al Sadd | 3–2 | Al Zawraa | 1–1 | 2–1 (a.e.t.) |
| Esteghlal | 3–0 | Al Faisaly | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Al Ahli | 5–4 | Al-Ahli | 3–2 | 2–2 |
| Al-Ahli (San'a') | 1–8 | FK Neftchy Farg'ona | 1–2 | 0–6 |
| Al-Ittihad | 4–6 | Pakhtakor | 4–3 | 0–3 |
| Al-Jaish | w/o$^1$ | Regar-TadAZ | — | — |
| Al-Quds | w/o$^2$ | Nisa Aşgabat | — | — |
| East Region |||||
| Geylang United FC | 7–0 | DPMM | 3–0 | 4–0 |
| Petrokimia Putra | 4–6 | Shanghai Shenhua | 3–1 | 1–5 |
| South China | 3–2 | Home United FC | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Persita Tangerang | 0–1 | Osotsapa FC | 0–1 | 0–0 |
| Monte Carlo | 1–8 | Daejeon Citizen | 1–5 | 0–3 |
| Shimizu S-Pulse | 7–0 | New Radiant | 7–0 | 0–0 |
| Mohun Bagan | 5–2 | Club Valencia | 2–2 | 3–0 |
| Churchill Brothers | 2–1 | Saigon Port | 2–0 | 0–1 |
1. Regar-TadAZ disqualified following suspension of Tajik FA by FIFA and AFC.
2. Al-Quds withdrew due to insecure situation in Palestine.

### Fourth qualifying round

| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| West Region |||||
| Al-Jaish | 2–2 (1–4 p) | Al Sadd | 1–1 | 1–1 |
| Nisa Asgabat | w/o$^1$ | Al Arabi | — | — |
| Pakhtakor | 4–2 | Al Ahli | 3–2 | 1–0 |
| Esteghlal | 2–2 (a) | FK Neftchy Farg'ona | 1–0 | 1–2 |
| East Region |||||
| Churchill Brothers | 4–7 | Osotsapa FC | 1–1 | 3–6 |
| South China | 1–8 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 0–5 | 1–3 |
| Shanghai Shenhua | 5–1 | Geylang United FC | 3–0 | 2–1 |
| Daejeon Citizen | 8–1 | Mohun Bagan | 6–0 | 2–1 |

## Group stage
### Group A

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| BEC Tero Sasana (H) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 7 |
| Daejeon Citizen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Shanghai Shenhua | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 3 |
| Kashima Antlers | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 1 |

### Group B

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Dalian Shide (H) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 7 |
| Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 6 |
| Shimizu S-Pulse | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 4 |
| Osotsapa FC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 20 | −19 | 0 |

### Group C

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Al-Ain (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 |
| Al Sadd | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
| Esteghlal | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 3 |
| Al-Hilal | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 3 |

### Group D

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Pakhtakor (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 9 |
| Persepolis | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 | 6 |
| Al-Talaba | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 3 |
| Nisa Asgabat | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 10 | −9 | 0 |

## Knock-out stage
### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final | Final | Final | Final |
| 1 | Al-Ain | 4 | 3 | 7 | | | | | |
| 4 | Dalian Shide | 2 | 4 | 6 | | | | | |
| 4 | Dalian Shide | 2 | 4 | 6 | Al-Ain | Al-Ain | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| | | | | | BEC Tero Sasana | BEC Tero Sasana | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | BEC Tero Sasana | 3 | 0 | 3 | BEC Tero Sasana | BEC Tero Sasana | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Pakhtakor | 1 | 1 | 2 | | | | | |

### Semi-finals

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| BEC Tero Sasana | 3–2 | Pakhtakor | 3–1 | 0–1 |
| Al-Ain | 7–6 | Dalian Shide | 4–2 | 3–4 |

#### Matches

BEC Tero Sasana won 3–2 on aggregate.
Al-Ain won 7–6 on aggregate.

### Final

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Al-Ain | 2–1 | BEC Tero Sasana | 2–0 | 0–1 |

#### Matches

Al-Ain won 2–1 on aggregate.

## Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Team | Goals |
| 1 | Hao Haidong | Dalian Shide | 9 |
| 2 | Boubacar Sanogo | Al Ain | 4 |
| 2 | Therdsak Chaiman | BEC Tero Sasana | 4 |
| 4 | Patrick Suffo | Al-Hilal | 3 |
| 4 | Mohammad Omar | Al Ain | 3 |
| 4 | Ali Samereh | Esteghlal | 3 |
| 4 | Anvarjon Soliev | Pakhtakor | 3 |
| 4 | Kim Dae-eui | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 3 |
| 4 | Kim Do-hoon | Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | 3 |
| 4 | Saul Martínez | Shanghai Shenhua | 3 |
| 4 | Ahn Jung-hwan | Shimizu S-Pulse | 3 |