Australian clubs Sydney FC and Adelaide United have drawn challenging groups for the first stage Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League 2007.

The A-League clubs, Australia's first representatives in the competition since joining the Asian federation this year, will need to beat champion sides from highly-rated soccer nations Japan and Korea to progress from their groups.

Sydney has been drawn in Group E alongside Japan's J-League champions Urawa Reds and will also play China's Shanghai Shenhua and Indonesia league champions Persik Kediri.

Adelaide United will be up against Korea's most successful club Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, Chinese Super League champions Shandong Luneng, and Vietnam's Dong Tam Long An.

The winner of each of the seven groups will progress to the quarter-final stage along with the current champions, Jeonbuk Motors of Korea.

The group stage of the competition kicks off on March 7 and concludes on May 23.

The competition then takes a pause for the AFC Asian Cup 2007 (July 7-29).

The home-and-away quarter-finals are slated for September 19 and 26 while the semi-finals will be held on October 3 and 24.

The two-legged Final is scheduled for November 7 and November 14.

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