The reporter reported coldly On the afternoon of March 17, the draw results of the 1/4 finals of the AFC Champions League Elite League were announced, which was the first time since 2013 that the AFC Champions League was drawn in the knockout round regardless of region. Among the three Saudi giants, Riyadh Crescent and Jeddah National are in the top half of the bracket against Gwangju FC and Buriram United, respectively; Cristiano Ronaldo's Riyadh Crescent and Qatar's Sadd are in the bottom half against two Japanese teams, Yokohama Mariners and Kawasaki Frontale, respectively. In the final stage of the AFC Champions League finals, the biggest attraction is naturally whether the three Saudi giants with foreign aid capabilities, numerical advantages, and home advantage can use trophies to prove that the Saudi League, which has long been overvalued, has become the first league in Asia.

The final stage of the AFC Champions League above the top 8 will be a single-game knockout system, which will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from April 25 to May 3. This time, the AFC Champions League has restored the pre-2014 knockout round East and West Asia non-regional format, and the 2020-2022 knockout round has been restored in a single country. Both system reforms started with the quarter-finals and were held in Saudi Arabia, which has the largest number of participating teams, allowing the top three Saudi Arabians, especially Jeddah nationals, to have a home advantage. In addition to the host advantage, the draw results for the quarterfinals were also on the cards for the Saudi team.

In the first half of the zone, Riyadh Crescent and Jeddah National are the two heroes, and the opponents are Gwangju FC and Buriram United, which are weaker in the East Asian region, and Ronaldo's Riyadh Victory is relatively unlucky, and the 1/4 finals face the Yokohama Mariners who are at the top of the East Asian league stage. Qatari giants Saad, who ranked fourth in the West Asian league stage, drew Kawasaki Frontale, who ranked second in the East Asian league stage, making the lower half of the zone a veritable "death half".

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the 2021 AFC Champions League West Asia were all held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh Crescent winning back-to-back victories in the semi-finals and finals at home and Pohang Steelers Corps. Last season, the AFC Champions League Saudi Arabian team relied on the foreign aid introduced by the heavy money, and all 4 participating teams entered the round of 16, and 3 teams entered the top 8. However, in the quarterfinals and quarterfinals, the UAE's Al Ain eliminated Riyadh Victory and Riyadh Crescent successively, and defeated Japan's Yokohama Mariners in the final to win the championship, embarrassing the superstar-studded Saudi league.

In this year's AFC Champions League Elite League, the East and West Asia regional league stage is the strongest comprehensive strength of Saudi Arabia and Japan J League teams to win the top 3. Saudi Arabia's top three and Japan's two are both in the last eight, and it is somewhat of a showdown between the two major leagues. In addition to the competition between teams, more important is the competition between the two league development strategies between Jinyuan football, which has invested heavily in foreign superstars, and Jinyuan football, which relies more on local players in Japan.

Of course, fans are more concerned about whether Ronaldo can get his first official trophy after joining Riyadh Victory more than two years ago. Ronaldo joined at the beginning of 2023 and has missed as many as 9 trophies so far. Among them, there are 3 Saudi Super Cup and 3 King's Cup, 2 Saudi League, and 1 AFC Champions League. This season, Ronaldo has missed the Saudi Super Cup and the Copa del Rey successively, and the Saudi Arabian League has 9 rounds left behind Jeddah United at the top of the table by as many as 10 points, and there is basically no hope of winning the championship. The AFC Champions League Elite League is Cristiano Ronaldo's last chance to win the title this season, and it is also the 11th time that he has attacked the trophy after joining Riyadh Victory.

Riyadh Victory have only met Japanese teams once in Asian competitions before: in the 1991/92 Asian Cup Winners' Cup final, Riyadh Victory suffered a 1-1 draw at home and a 5-0 defeat to Nissan Motor in the title. Nissan is the predecessor of the Yokohama Mariner, and it is "fate" to meet again after 33 years. However, Riyadh Victory's only two Asian titles, the 1997/98 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the 1998 Asian Super Cup, were won by beating South Korean opponents in East Asia.

In contrast, the Riyadh Crescent team has entered the Asian finals 12 times, won the championship 8 times, won the AFC Champions League 4 times, and won the AFC Champions League 2 times in 6 years since 2017, and has more experience in the competition. Jeddah National AFC Champions League has been eliminated in the previous four matches against East Asian teams, and this time against Buriram United is considered a sign. If the two teams meet in the semi-finals, it will be the second time they meet after the 2019 AFC Champions League quarter-finals, when Jeddah Nationals were eliminated by Riyadh Crescent.

It is worth mentioning that if Ronaldo, Mane, and Laporte of Riyadh Victory, as well as Jeddah National's Mahrez, Firmino, and Mendy 6 stars can finally win the championship with the team, they will become the "double continental champions" players with the title of Champions League and AFC Champions League in their careers. Previously, Bulgarian superstar Stoichkov had won the Champions League and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup, but did not win the AFC Champions League. Guangzhou Evergrande's Brazilian star Paulinho, who won the Copa Libertadores before winning the AFC Champions League in 2015, is also a "double continent champion" player.