Persepolis, Ulsan Second Iranian-Korean Encounter in ACL Final

When the two teams face off in the 2020 AFC Champions League final in Doha on Saturday, it marks just the second time clubs from their respective nations have met at this stage in the tournament's history, the first coming a decade ago.

As the clock ticks down towards Asian club football's highly anticipated showpiece event, the-AFC.com rolls back the clock 10 years to when teams from Korea Republic and Iran first faced off in the AFC Champions League final: a memorable encounter between Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Zob Ahan, where the Korean team won the match 3-1 at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan.

The Tehran giant returns for Saturday's final of the 2020 edition looking to go one better than Zob Ahan and want to become the first Iranian winner in the AFC Champions League era.

Ulsan, meanwhile, will be hoping that this second Korean-Iranian encounter goes exactly the same as the first meeting 10 years ago.

Korean clubs would go on to appear in the AFC Champions League final four more times (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016), winning in 2012 with Ulsan and 2016 with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

For teams from Iran, the sole representative at Asian club football's grandest stage since then was Persepolis in 2018.