When the draw was done, it was late November when JDT's name was picked out from the bowl to go into Group E of the 2019 AFC Champions League. But the names of the three other opponents were simply a question mark due to then waiting for one competition to finish as well as two play-off matches.
South Korea's Gyeongnam FC were confirmed as the second team to drop into the group and after the whole fixture of the play-off completed for the East Zone on Tuesday, two more teams are known and they are from China and Japan respectively.
Hanoi FC made Shandong Luneng work hard after leading 0-1 at half time but the Chinese side stormed back in the second period to eventually run out 4-1 winners to confirm their place in Group E. Nguyen Van Quyet's early goal was cancelled out by Liu Junshuai before further goals from Graziano Pelle, Liu Binbin and Zhou Haibin ended the tie as a contest.
The final place in the group came down to the play-off between last year's champions Kashima Antlers and Australia's Newcastle Jets. Antlers took an 18th minute lead through Sho Ito but Jets equalised just five minutes later through Ronald Vargas.
But the Japanese side were not to be denied as goals from Shuto Yamamoto (32') and Serginho (67', 90+1') completed a 4-1 win for Antlers and they became the fourth team in JDT's group
Group E: Gyeongnam FC, Johor Darul Ta'zim FC, Shandong Luneng, Kashima Antlers
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