United City vs Daegu

Milliy Stadium is the venue, as United City and Daegu go head-to-head in their closing AFC Champions League Group I fixture.

United City performed a stunning second-half comeback to recover from a 2-0 half-time deficit to eke out a 3-2 victory over Beijing Guoan last time out. However, their Matchday 5 heroics won’t be enough for the ‘Golden Boys’ to progress into the knock-out stages following a sluggish start to their Group I campaign that saw them fail to win any of their opening four group stage matches (D1, L3). Indeed, before the abovementioned success against Beijing, United City had suffered three consecutive group phase losses by an aggregate score of 17-0, conceding at least once beyond the 60th minute on each occasion. Another alarming sign is that Jason Withe’s men have gone from three consecutive home triumphs in all competitions to three straight matches without winning (D1, L2).

On the other hand, Deagu will advance to the knock-out phase from the second place regardless of the outcome of this encounter as they hope to bounce back from a 3-1 home defeat to Kawasaki last time out. That reverse halted Daegu’s run of three successive group stage victories, a sequence that saw them score 15 unanswered goals. Lee Byung-keun’s men tend to dismantle their opponents beyond half-time, as witnessed by the fact they had netted over 1.5 goals second-half goals in three group stage games on the spin before losing to Kawasaki. The Koreans have also been impressive away from home lately, having lost just one of their last seven road trips in all competitions (W5, D1), courtesy of a 3-2 loss to Kawasaki on Matchday 1.