Here we chart the Australian side's progress from Group E to the title game.

Group Stage

Pohang Steelers 0 Adelaide United 2

Adelaide United 0 Changchun Yatai 0

Binh Duong 1 Adelaide United 2

Adelaide United 4 Binh Duong 1

Adelaide United 1 Pohang Steelers 0

Changchun Yatai 0 Adelaide United 0

Having endured a disappointing debut in the Asian Champions League a year earlier, Adelaide United enjoyed the perfect start second time around with a 2-0 away win over K-League champions Pohang Steelers in their Group E opener thanks to an early header by Robert Cornthwaite and Bruce Djite's second-half strike.

Aurelio Vidmar's side failed to build on that win as they were held to a goalless draw by Chinese champions Changchun Yatai in their home opener but back-to-back wins against Vietnam'sBinh Duong and Changchun's 2-2 draw with Pohang in Korea meant that they entered the final two rounds of matches with a two-point lead over the Chinese side.

With Changchun easily dispatching Binh Duong 5-0, Adelaide needed to beat Pohang in their penultimate match at Hindmarsh Stadium to maintain their advantage and they got the points thanks to Diego's 63rd-minute strike.

It left them needing only a draw in their final game in Changchun to go through and they achieved it, withstanding strong pressure from the Chinese side to hold out for a goalless stalemate.

Adelaide's stingy defence was key to their progression as they conceded only two goals - both against minnows Binh Duong - in their six group stage games.

Quarter-finals

Kashima Antlers 1 Adelaide United 1

Adelaide United 1 Kashima Antlers 0

Cornthwaite emerged as both villain and hero for Adelaide as the Australian side sent Japanese champions Kashima Antlers crashing out after yet another solid defensive display.

Kashima had been the tournament's top scorers during the group stage with 28 goals in six games but they found the Adelaide defence much tougher to break down and found themselves trailing at Kashima Soccer Stadium when Travis Dodd headed in the opening goal after 38 minutes.

An equaliser arrived in bizarre circumstances on the stroke of half-time when Atsuto Uchida's harmless low shot into the box was sliced into the net by Cornthwaite with no opposition player in close attendance.

Despite that gaffe, Adelaide were still in a handy position to advance on the basis of Dodd's away goal.

They only needed to keep a clean sheet against Kashima in the return match but Cornthwaite redeemed himself for his error in Japan, diving to head home an inviting cross by Cassio 17 minutes from time to secure a 2-1 aggregate victory for the Reds.

Semi-finals

Adelaide United 3 Kuruvchi 0

Kuruvchi 1 Adelaide United 0

Much was made prior to the first leg of the expensively-assembled Kuruvchi squad that featured former FIFA World Player of the Year Rivaldo and Chilean striker Jose Luis Villanueva, who netted a hat-trick in the 5-1 demolition of Iranian champions Saipa in the quarter-finals.

But with Villanueva going off with a hamstring injury in the first half, the Uzbek side lacked bite up front despite having the better of possession in the first leg.

Adelaide rarely threatened before taking the lead against the run of play in the 57th minute when Cassio's towering cross was chested down in the box by Diego, who charged between two defenders before firing past Pavel Bugalo.

Fabian Barbiero extended the home side's lead when he turned in Dodd's knock-down from close range in the 76th minute and Cristiano converted a late penalty to give Adelaide an unlikely 3-0 win.

Overturning that deficit against a stingy defence that had surrendered only three goals in their previous nine games was always going to be a tall order and although Bahodyr Pardaev's strike 12 minutes from time did hand the South Australians their first loss of the campaign, it was ultimately no more than a consolation for the Uzbek side.