Bengaluru FC to face North Korea's April 25th Sports Club in AFC Cup 2017 knockouts

BENGALURU FC, the only Indian club still pursuing an Asian campaign, have been picked to play April 25th Sports Club in their first knockout round of AFC Cup 2017.

The Blues were drawn against the red-shirted 4.25 in a lucky draw today. The two will meet in the AFC Cup's Inter Zone Play-off Semi-finals to be played over two legs on 23rd August and 13th September.

April 25th Sports Club is a prominent team from North Korea, the most successful club in the DPR Korea League. They have won their top division league 15 times and produced some memorable performance in the erstwhile Asian Club Championship (now re-branded as AFC Champions League), reaching the semi-finals in 1990-91.

North Korean teams have been mostly absent from the Asian stage due to the country not fulfilling many of the criterions set by the continental body, and they miss out on a direct spot in the AFC Champions League despite being a country with a high FIFA rank.

Bengaluru FC will face a tough challenge as they seek to repeat their feat of participating in the AFC Cup final which they did in 2016 as well. The winner of this two legged encounter will progress to the Inter-Zone Playoff Final to be also played in a home-away format. The winner of that match-up will reach the AFC Cup final where they will play the winner of the West Asian Zonal Final to be played between defending champions Al-Quwa-Al-Jawiya (Iraq) and Al-Wahda (Syria).