Deprived of the services of their talismanic midfielder Andres Iniesta who was deemed only fit enough for a place on the bench after a muscle injury in the previous match, Vissel Kobe found themselves ceding possession to their opponents in the early stages of the game.

Behind after seven minutes to a Park Sang-hyeok goal, Vissel’s prospects swung sharply on the 38th-minute red card to Suwon’s Kim Tae-hwan, with Kyogo Furuhashi levelling the tie from the resultant free-kick.

Despite holding a numerical advantage for more than 80 minutes, Miura’s side were unable to find a winning goal in open play, ultimately prevailing 7-6 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw, and extending their sensational first appearance in the competition all the way to Sunday’s semi-final against Ulsan Hyundai FC of Korea Republic.

Scoring two or more goals on every occasion, the Korean outfit have now won seven matches in a row since arriving in Qatar and with Júnior one of three players in the side to have compiled a personal tally of four goals in the tournament.

Thursday’s test was their biggest yet. They were up against a Beijing side who themselves hadn’t lost a match in the competition, but Ulsan emerged with their record intact, and are now just two wins away from a second AFC Champions League title.

Appearing in the quarter-finals for the first time, and riding a club record seven game unbeaten in the competition, the Chinese side fell to a 2-0 defeat to the K League outfit, with both goals scored before half-time by Brazilian striker Júnior Negrão.

On a statistical level, Beijing were well and truly in the game. They had more than 60 percent of possession and 22 shots at goal to Ulsan’s seven, but Génésio was left to reflect on their inability to make it count in the most important column on the stats sheet – goals.

Doha: Suwon Samsung Bluewings' Kim Tae-hwan has been voted by the fans as the 2020 AFC Champions League (East) Toyota Player of the Week after an excellent display in his side's come-from-behind 3-2 Round of 16 win over Yokohama F. Marinos as the K League 1 team advanced to the quarter-finals.

The midfielder, who amassed 50 percent of the fans' votes, drilled home Suwon's equaliser with a superb strike from outside the box just before the hour mark with his first goal of the campaign, He earned an 8.0 rating from Stats Perform – the AFC's official data provider.

Japan are ranked 27th, two spots ahead of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a year which saw very limited national team action across the Continent.

Both Japan and Iran were unchanged from their previous rankings with Korea Republic (38th) and Australia (41st) also not moving.