KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Guangzhou Evergrande will meet South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors for the third consecutive year in Asian Football Association (AFC) Champions League group stage as the Chinese giants seek to defend their title in 2014.
The defending champions were drawn into Group G at the 2014 AFC Champions League (ACL) group stage draw made here on Tuesday. Neither Jeonbuk nor the other two teams in the group - a qualifier winner and the undecided Japanese knock-out cup champion are expected to pose threats to the Chinese side.
Guangzhou stunned Asia in their ACL debut with an astonishing 5-1 victory away to Jeonbuk in 2012, and were crowned the Asian champions in this year's ACL under World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi.
"There are no good draws or bad draws, because the participants in the ACL are all strong teams," said Guangzhou Evergrande Chairman Liu Yongzhuo.
Guangzhou is seeking a replacement for its Argentine playmaker Dario Conca, who will leave the team by the end of the season.
Guangzhou is scheduled to meet African champions Al Ahly SC at the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco later this week.
Chinese FA Cup winners Guizhou Renhe, which will meet Australia's Western Sydney Wanderers, J-League runners-up and Ulsan Hyundai from South Korea in group stage, also look forward to breakthrough.
Yang Xiaoyu, a senior official at Guizhou, said the ACL competition will be their priority in the new season.
AFC has brought more clubs and countries and regions to ACL in the new season, and the clubs from East and West Asia will only meet at the two-leg final due to a stricter partition rule.