The draw for the preliminary group-stage round of Asia's top-flight tournament, equivalent to Uefa's Champions League, was held at AFC headquarters in Malaysia's capital on Friday afternoon.

The Thai Premier League outfit, who defied the odds to win the title for the first time, were handed somewhat of an unfavourable draw and face J-league runners-up Kawasaki Frontale, South Korea's FA Cup winners Chunnam Dragons and Indonesian Cup-holders Arema Malang in Group F.

Somchai Sabperm, the Bangkok University team coach, admitted that he could not have asked for more. "All the participating teams are strong. At this level, there are definitely no easy assignments. Teams from South Korea and Japan seem to hold distinct advantages over us, so we need to prepare our team in

the best possible way," said Somchai.

"We have tried to recruit new players to strengthen our squad and are close to signing Japanese midfielder Makahiro Fusakawa, who used to play in Major League Soccer in the United States.

He has trained with us for a while, and the contract may be signed soon after we get his transfer documents.

"At the beginning of January we will go to Hong Kong for a training camp and play some warm-up matches in order to help the players acclimatise to the cool weather as we will be visiting Japan and South Korea."

"We are targeting the quarter-finals. To achieve that, we have to get maximum points from our home matches, which will be held at the Thai-Japanese Youth Welfare stadium. For away games, I hope to get something out of our trips," added Somchai.At the group stage, which will kick off on March 7, 28 teams have been divided into seven groups of four.

The winners of each section progress to the last eight, where they will be joined by reigning champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors of South Korea.

The draw:

Group A: Al Arabi (Kuwait), Al Wahda (UAE), Al Rayyan (Qatar), Al Zawra'a (Iraq)

Group B: Pakhtakor (Uzbekistan), Al Kuwait (Kuwait), Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia), Esteghlal (Iran)

Group C: Al Karama (Syria), Neftchi (Uzbekistan), Al Najaf (Iraq), Al Sadd (Qatar)

Group D: Al Ain (UAE), Al Ittihad (Syria), Sepahan (Iran), Al Shabab (Saudi Arabia)

Group E: Urawa Reds (Japan), Sydney FC (Australia), Shanghai Shenhua (China), Persik Kediri (Indonesia)

Group F: Bangkok University (Thailand), Kawasaki Frontale (Japan), Arema Malang (Indonesia), Chunnam Dragons (Korea),

Group G: Adelaide United (Australia), Dong Tam Long An (Vietnam), Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (Korea), Shandong Luneng (China)