Thursday’s quarter-final draw pitted the ambitious Chinese champions, who are being led by Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, travel to Jeddah for the first-leg of their intriguing clash with the 2004 and 2005 ACL winners before hosting undefeated Al Ittihad at the Tianhe Sport Centre, where Guangzhou lost two out of their three Group Stage matches before edging FC Tokyo in the Round of 16.

The winner of the Guangzhou versus Al Ittihad clash takes on the winner of the quarter-final between Al Ahli and Sepahan, which opens the door to a potential Jeddah derby in the final four should the second of Saudi Arabia’s three representatives in this year’s Champions League see off the 2007 ACL runners-up.

Riyadh giants Al Hilal, two-time Asian Club Championship and Asian Super Cup winners who are seeking their first ACL title, are the Kingdom’s third team in the mix and they will take on East Asia’s only other representative Ulsan Hyundai, while the remaining quarter-final sees Adelaide United renew acquaintances with Group E rivals Bunyodkor.

The first-leg of the AFC Champions League quarter-finals will take place on September 19 with the return fixture on October 2 or 3 with the venues and kick-off times to be confirmed soon.

AFC Champions League 2012 – Knockout Stage Draw

QF1: Al Ittihad (KSA) v Guangzhou Evergrande (CHN)
QF2: Sepahan (IRN) v Al Ahli (KSA)
QF3: Adelaide United (AUS) v Bunyodkor (UZB)
QF4: Ulsan Hyundai (KOR) v Al Hilal (KSA)

Uzbek club Bunyodkor’s team manager Bahtiyor Bobev is happy to see his club up against familiar foes when they were drawn against Adelaide United of Australia during the AFC Champions League 2012 Knockout Stage draw at AFC House on Thursday.

“We have twice played Adelaide in the group stage of the ACL, where we lost our home match and then drew in the away encounter with the Australians,” Bobev told the-afc.com.

“So we are quite familiar with the club and it’s good that we will meet them again as it will be a sort of rematch for us.

“But travelling to Australia during the group stage was the longest journey we ever did in the competition and for sure, we will be performing the long journey again, which is the only for problem for us, but we will tough this out as we did already.”