A-League double winners Brisbane Roar escaped any group of death opposition and will face Joel Griffiths's (former?) club Beijing Guoan, Korea's Ulsan Hyundai and Japan's Emperor's Cup winner from the final in January.

“It’s exciting , that’s the main thing," sdaid Roar coach Ange Postecoglou said. “We’re in it, we’re in an important international competition and that’s what we want as a club.

“You want to play against the big clubs and big countries to really test yourself. We’ve got a team from Japan, China and Korea which are all strong football countries with strong club football sides.

“The really key thing for us now is to make sure we’re in good form when the tournament comes around so we need to concentrate on the Hyundai A-League for the next couple of months."

Beijing are a well-back club and Postecoglou said he expected them to strengthen their squad ahead of the tournament in March.

"From what I understand they got a lot of money and they’re looking to spend a lot of money," he said.

"The good thing about it is that we’ll be playing in Beijing which is the capital city and will make things a lot easier in terms of logistical planning and travel."

Ulsan finished the 2011 K-League season in sixth place, but an amazing run during the play-offs too the club all the way to the grand final, where they lost 4-2 over two legs to top team Joenbuk Hyundai Motors.

Again, Postecoglou said he expected the team from Korea's south-east to strengthen their squad in an effort to progress through the competition.

"They did well to get to the final against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, so despite finishing sixth they’ve performed well at the end of the season," he said. “It’ll be an interesting one for us.

“They might strengthen now. If they finished sixth and want to have a real tilt at the AFC Champions League, they may well bring in more players.

“It’s the off-season there now, so we’ll do our homework and see what they do over the next few months."

The only question mark in the group will be the final participant from Japan, which will be decided by the Emperor's Cup competition.

The cup final will not be held until January 1, meaning Postecoglou and his staff will need to carefully monitor the progress of the tournament to eliminate possible contenders.

“That’s going to make things a little difficult from a research point of view," he said. "We know who it’s not going to be, it’s not going to be one of the top three teams in Japan.

“From that point of view we’ll be meeting a club that didn’t do so well during the season, but again we’ll do our homework once that spot has been decided. "

Grand final losers Central Coast Mariners will come up against stiffer competition when they face Socceroo Josh Kennedy's J-League side Nagoya Grampus, Sasa Ognenovski's Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and China's Tianjin Teda.

Adelaide United have also qualified direct for the competition, courtesy of a last minute decision just before the draw was made.

The Reds were initially one of four East Asian clubs set to play-off for two places in the tournament, but one withdrew and Adelaide were the lucky name picked from the hat to win direct entry.

They will face the winner of the remaining play-off as well as Japan's Gamba Osaka and Uzbekistan's Bunyodkor.

Central Coast Mariners welcomed the draw, with travel arrangements high on their list of priorities.

“Obviously the teams we play will be difficult, but if you look at where they are located the travel aspect has become a bit easier for us,” said coach Graham Arnold.

“Tianjin is close to Beijing, as is Seongnam to Seoul and Nagoya to both Osaka and Tokyo.

“Obviously with the A-League starting later and the final rounds of the competition overlapping with the ACL we hope the dates of the games will be nice to us.”

He added: “We are focussed on the A-League, but now that we know who we will be playing we can begin our preparation for those teams.

“Make no mistake, we will be leaving no stone unturned in attempting to excel in the 2012 ACL and want to represent the people of the Central Coast with distinction on the international sporting stage."