Goal-less draw means former winners Ulsan HD exit Asian Champions League
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Shanghai Port midfielder Mateus Vital closing down Ulsan HD midfielder Lee Dong-gyeong in their AFC Champions League football match in Shanghai on Feb 18, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
Former champions Ulsan HD crashed out of the Asian Champions League Elite on Feb 18, as a 0-0 draw with hosts Shanghai Port failed to lift the South Korean side into the qualification spots for the knockout rounds in March.
The draw left Ulsan, winners of the Asian title in 2012 and 2020, in ninth position in the 12-team eastern league phase standings and adrift of compatriots Gangwon FC.
Gangwon held on to the last qualification berth due to their 0-0 draw with already-qualified Melbourne City in Australia and the results mean FC Seoul also advance to the last 16 following their 2-2 draw with Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Feb 17.
Ulsan and Gangwon went into the eighth round of league phase matches level on eight points, with Gangwon holding the upper hand having scored more goals than their compatriots.
That left Ulsan needing to better Gangwon’s result but the five-time South Korean champions were unable to find a way past the defence of a Shanghai Port side who had already been eliminated from the competition without a win.
Gangwon also struggled but the point secured in a drab draw in front of a sparse crowd in Melbourne means Chung Kyung-ho’s side will face Japan’s Machida Zelvia over two legs next month.
FC Seoul, meanwhile, will take on Vissel Kobe while Japan’s third representative, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, are due to play Malaysia’s Johor Darul Takzim.
Melbourne City will host Buriram United from Thailand in the first leg in the opening week of March with the return to be played one week later.
The winners of the last 16 clashes will advance to the centralised finals in April, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final to be played in Jeddah. REUTERS
