The 2015 AFC Cup Final was the final match of the

2015 AFC Cup Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...

, the 12th edition of the

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

, a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition organized by the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

(AFC) for clubs from 'developing countries' in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

according to the Vision Asia plan. The final was contested as a single match between Tajikistani team Istiklol and Malaysian team

Johor Darul Ta'zim Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club or simply JDT is a professional football club based in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. The club was founded in 1972 as PKENJ FC and currently competes in the top division of Malaysian football, the Malaysia Super ...

. The match was hosted by Istiklol at the

Pamir Stadium The Markazii Tojikiston Stadium (russian: Центральный республиканский стадион Душанбе; tg, Варзишгоҳи марказии Тоҷикистон, Varzishgohi Markazii Tojikiston), also known as Pamir S ...

Dushanbe Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (r ...

on 31 October 2015.

Leandro Velázquez Leandro Sebastián Velázquez (born 10 May 1989) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Malaysia Super League club Johor Darul Ta'zim. Career Club career Velázquez made his league debut for Vélez S ...

scored the only goal in a match for Johor Darul Ta'zim, who won the match 1–0 and clinched their first title.

Venue

The

is a multi-use stadium in

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

. It is the home stadium of Istiklol and holds 24,000 spectators.

Background

Istiklol qualified for the 2015 AFC Cup group stage as the

2014 Tajik League The 2014 Tajik League is the 23rd season of Tajik League, the Tajikistan Football Federation's top division of association football. Ravshan Kulob are the defending champions, having won the previous season. The season started on 12 April 2014. Te ...

and

2014 Tajik Cup The 2014 Tajik Cup was the 23rd edition of the Tajik Cup. The cup winner qualified for the 2015 AFC Cup. Preliminary round Round of 16 Quarter-finals ---- Semi-finals ---- Final References External linksTajikistan Football Fede ...

winners. This was their first appearance in the AFC Cup. Johor Darul Ta'zim qualified for the

2015 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off The 2015 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off was played from 4 to 17 February 2015. A total of 25 teams competed in the qualifying play-off to decide eight of the 32 places in the group stage of the 2015 AFC Champions League. Format The bracke ...

as the

2014 Malaysia Super League The 2014 Liga Super ( en, 2014 Super League) also known as the Astro Liga Super for sponsorship reasons is the 11th season of the Liga Super, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.http://www.rsssf.com/tablesm/malay2014.html 2014 L ...

champions, but failed to advance to the AFC Champions League group stage, and entered the AFC Cup group stage. This was their second appearance in the AFC Cup. Both teams reached the AFC Cup final for the first time, and Johor Darul Ta'zim was the first team from East Asia Zone to reach the final.

Road to final

''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).''

Rules

The final was played as a single match, with the host team decided by draw. If tied after regulation,

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

and, if necessary,

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

would be used to decide the winner.

Match

References

External links

AFC Cup
the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Cup Final 2015 *Final AFC Cup finals International club association football competitions hosted by Tajikistan FC Istiklol matches Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. matches