The 2020 AFC Champions League knockout stage was played from 26 September to 19 December 2020 in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. A total of 16 teams competed in the knockout stage to decide the champions of the

2020 AFC Champions League The 2020 AFC Champions League was the 39th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 18th under the current AFC Champions League title. Ulsan Hyundai won their second Champion ...

Qualified teams

The winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

advanced to the round of 16, with both West Region (Groups A–D) and East Region (Groups E–H) having eight qualified teams.

Format

In the knockout stage, the 16 teams played a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, with the teams split into the two regions until the final. Each tie was played as a single-leg match at centralised venues, instead of the usual home-and-away

two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

basis as planned before the

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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 a

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 ...

were used to decide the winners if necessary.

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows. The original schedule, as planned before the

, was as follows. *Round of 16: 18–19 May (West Region first legs), 25–27 May (West Region second legs and East Region first legs), 16–17 June (East Region second legs) *Quarter-finals: 24–26 August (first legs), 14–16 September (second legs) *Semi-finals: 29–30 September (first legs), 20–21 October (second legs) *Final: 22 November (first leg), 28 November (second leg) After meetings with representatives of the member associations from the East Region held on 2 March 2020 and from the West Region held on 7–8 March 2020, it was agreed that the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals would be moved to 10–12 and 24–26 August, 14–16 and 28–30 September, and 20–21 and 27–28 October. On 9 July 2020, the AFC announced the new schedule for the remaining matches, with all matches before the final played at centralised venues. The West Region round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals would be played on 26–27 September, 30 September and 3 October, and the East Region round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals would be played on 3–4 November, 25 November and 28 November. The final would be played on 5 December, at a venue in the West Region. On 10 September 2020, the AFC announced that East Region round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals were rescheduled to be played on 6–7 December, 10 December and 13 December, and the final were rescheduled to 19 December.

Venues

On 16 July 2020, the AFC announced that

would host all West Region matches after restart. On 27 July 2020, the AFC announced that

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

would host two round of 16 matches involving teams from Group G and H, and both quarter-finals and the semi-final of the East Region. However, on 9 October 2020, the AFC announced that following an agreement with

Qatar Football Association The Qatar Football Association ( ar, الاتحاد القطري لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Qaṭariyy li-Kurat al-Qadam) is the governing body of football in Qatar. President Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-Thani is currently ...

, all East Region matches after restart would also be played in Qatar. On 16 October 2020, the AFC announced that the final would be played in Qatar. The following centralised venues in Qatar were used: *

Al Janoub Stadium Al-Janoub Stadium ( ar, استاد الجنوب, ʾIstād al-Janūb, Stadium of the South), formerly known as Al-Wakrah Stadium (), is a retractable roof football stadium in Al-Wakrah, Qatar that was inaugurated on 16 May 2019. This is the secon ...

Al Wakrah Al Wakrah ( ar, الوكرة, al-Wakra) is the capital city of the Al Wakrah Municipality in Qatar. Al Wakrah's eastern edge is the shores of the Persian Gulf and Qatar's capital Doha is situated to the city's immediate north. Governed by Sheikh ...

(2 round of 16 matches of West Region, 2 quarter-finals and 1 semi-final of East Region, and final) *

Education City Stadium Education City Stadium () is a football stadium which is located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, and was built as a venue in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar. The stadium is located within several university campuses at the Qatar Foundation' ...

Al Rayyan Al Rayyan (; also spelled as ''Ar Rayyan'') is the third-largest municipality in the state of Qatar. Its primary settlement is the city of the same name, which occupies the entire eastern section and largely surrounds Metropolitan Doha and funct ...

(2 round of 16 matches of West Region, 2 round of 16 matches of East Region) * Jassim bin Hamad Stadium,

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

(2 quarter-finals and 1 semi-final of West Region) *

Khalifa International Stadium Khalifa International Stadium (, , ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, around west from the centre of Doha. Its ground comprises a running track and a grass pitch. Opened in 1976, the stadium was named after then-Emir of ...

(2 round of 16 matches of East Region)

Bracket

The bracket of the knockout stage was determined as follows:

The bracket was decided after the draw for the quarter-finals. The draw for the West Region quarter-finals was held on 28 September 2020, 11:00 AST (

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

), and the draw for the East Region quarter-finals was held on 8 December 2020, 11:30 AST (

), both in

, Qatar.

Round of 16

Summary

In the round of 16, the winners of one group played against the runners-up of another group from the same region and the matchups were determined by the group stage draw. , +West Region , +East Region

West Region

---- ---- ----

East Region

---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

Summary

In the quarter-finals, the four teams from the West Region played in two ties, and the four teams from the East Region played in two ties, with the matchups decided by draw, without any seeding or country protection. The draw for the West Region quarter-finals was held on 28 September 2020, and the draw for the East Region quarter-finals was held on 8 December 2020. , +West Region , +East Region

West Region

----

East Region

----

Semi-finals

Summary

In the semi-finals, the two quarter-final winners from the West Region played against each other, and the two quarter-final winners from the East Region played against each other. , +West Region , +East Region

West Region

East Region

Final

In the final, the two semi-final winners played against each other, at

, Qatar.

Notes

References

External links

*, the-AFC.com
AFC Champions League 2020
stats.the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:AFC Champions League Knockout Stage 2020 *3 September 2020 sports events in Asia October 2020 sports events in Asia November 2020 sports events in Asia December 2020 sports events in Asia