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Sailors eyeing knockout stage after kind draw
The Straits Times
|August 16, 2025
The Lion City Sailors' bid for another improbable run to the AFC Champions League 2 final was boosted on Aug 15, when they were handed a favourable draw for the group stage of the 2025-26 season.
In the draw conducted at the InterContinental in Kuala Lumpur, the Singapore Premier League (SPL) champions avoided teams from China, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Instead, they found themselves in Group G with fellow South-east Asian sides—Thai League 1 runners-up Bangkok United, Malaysia Super League runners-up Selangor FC and Indonesia Liga 1 champions Persib Bandung.
The ACL 2 features 32 teams from the West and East regions, who have been split into eight groups of four teams.
Matches will be played in a home-and-away round-robin format, from Sept 17 to Dec 11 for the East zone, with the top two sides from each group advancing to the round of 16 in February 2026.
The final will be staged on May 16, 2026.
This story is from the August 16, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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