CAHN avoided facing many big teams in the knockout round of the AFC Cup.

TPO - This afternoon (December 30), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held the draw for the knockout stage of the AFC Cup 2025/26 season. CAHN, the only representative of Vietnamese football in this stage, received a relatively easy draw.

Having finished only second in their group, CAHN faced the risk of clashing with big names, especially Gamba Osaka, the top contender in the Eastern Conference. Fortunately, the Vietnamese representative only had to face Tampines Rovers. The Singaporean club was perhaps the "easiest" opponent among the teams CAHN could potentially face.

Tampines Rovers may not have a particularly strong squad, with a mix of local players and a few average foreign players, but their playing style is truly formidable. In the group stage, they remained undefeated in all six matches, winning five and drawing only one. The Singaporean club's performance was only surpassed by Gamba Osaka and Al Nassr. This serves as a warning to the Vietnamese representative.

Tampines Rovers are showing very high form.

In other matches, Persib Bandung (Indonesia) faced Ratchaburi (Thailand), while Bangkok United (Thailand) played against Macarthur (Australia). Meanwhile, two formidable rivals from South Korea and Japan, Pohang and Gamba Osaka, had to eliminate each other early on.

In the Western Conference, Al Nassr has yet to face a real challenge. Their opponent is the reigning AFC Cup winner, Arkadag. Overall, there aren't many challenges awaiting Ronaldo's team.

According to the format, teams from East and West Asia will play knockout matches within their respective regions. The winner from the East will face the winner from the West region. Therefore, if CAHN wants to face Al Nassr (the team most likely to win the West Asian championship), they will have to overcome three difficult hurdles: the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final of the East region.

The Round of 16 will take place in February 2026. Representatives from West Asia will compete on February 10th and 11th, and 17th and 18th, while teams from East Asia will play on February 11th, 12th, and 18th and 19th.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/cahn-ne-duoc-nhieu-ong-lon-o-vong-knock-out-cup-c2-chau-a-post1809019.tpo