Kitchee learned their fate in the AFC Champions League late on Tuesday evening when the final two members of group E won their play-off games.
Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian and Japanese J-League 1 team Kashiwa Reysol confirmed their places alongside the Hong Kong Premier League champions and Korean K-League winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
But what is in store for Diego Forlan and his Kitchee teammates when they kick off their continental adventure on February 13 – and more importantly do they stand a chance of bettering Eastern’s record of picking up a solitary point last season?
South Korea’s Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors players celebrate a goal in the 2016 AFC Champions League. Photo: AFP
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
Korean champions Jeonbuk are AFC Champions League royalty and one of the most successful teams in the post-2002 Champions League era, having won it twice, most recently in 2016, and finished runners-up once – a feat only matched by Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad.
Jeonbuk qualified for the group stages as league champions, their fifth K-League title, romping to the title by nine points.
They have won three of the last four titles and finished runners-up in 2016 making them the strongest team in the group and one that makes up a large contingent of the South Korean national side.
Formerly of the South China Morning Post, Jonathan White has written about sport from China for nearly 15 years, and covered the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the Fifa World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. As well as his writing – on sport and beyond – featuring in global outlets, he also often appears on international television, radio and podcasts.
