The reigning Saudi Pro League Champions sit top of Group C with nine points, two points ahead of their nearest chasers Al Duhail. They welcome to Riyadh an Al Ain side who are yet to record a win this campaign and are bottom of the group with two points.

The two weeks since their last AFC Champions League outing saw drastic changes at Al Hilal. The club parted ways with head coach Zoran Mamic and the former Al Ain man was replaced by Pericles Chamusca until the end of the season.

All teams across the four groups are still in contention for qualification to the Round of 16, setting up some tasty encounters in the eight matches taking place across Monday and Tuesday.

A 1-0 defeat to Al Hilal a fortnight ago left the Tehran-based side in third place with four points, three adrift of their Monday opponents and five behind leaders Al Hilal.

Esteghlal’s woes were compounded when a 1-0 loss to Padideh in the Iranian Pro League, resulting in the suspension of the services of coach Winfried Schafer, with assistant Farhad Majidi taking over at the helm.

The eight sides in Groups G and H will take to the field on Tuesday, before the remaining eight teams in Groups E and F follow suit a day later in a week that should see a number of the knockout stage qualification berths decided.

Xavi, who has been playing for Al Sadd since 2015, said that he will move into coaching after hanging up his boots.

Xavi, who played a record 767 times for Spanish giants Barcelona and earned 133 caps with Spain, announced his retirement plans in an open letter to the Spanish media on Thursday.

Riffa sealed their 12th Bahraini Premier League title last week, and will hoist the trophy after Saturday's match against Al Muharraq.

Riffa defeated 2019 AFC Cup contenders Malkiya Club 2-0 last week to confirm their title triumph, courtesy of first half goals from Abdulah Mubarak and Kamil Al Aswad.

Al Ashour's side will feature in the 2020 AFC Champions League preliminary round as Bahraini champions.

Al Taawoun came from a goal down to win, with Leandre Tawamba scoring a dramatic winner in the 89th minute.

HM King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presented the title to Al Taawoun, their first King’s Cup trophy.