Mumbai City will be the fifth Indian Super League team to compete in an AFC competition
Mumbai City won the 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL) League Winners Shield to become the second ISL team after FC Goa to secure a direct berth in the group stage of the AFC Champions League.
The Islanders have been grouped alongside Al Jazira (UAE), Al Shabab (Saudi Arabia) and Air Force Club (Iraq) in Group B in the west region. The matches are being held in Saudi Arabia.
Des Buckingham's side are on a two-week camp in Al Forsan, Abu Dhabi, before heading to Riyadh where the group stage games for the West Zone groups will be staged between April 7-27.
Whereas, having finished runners-up in the ISL season 7 league stage, ATK Mohun Bagan are set to start their 2022 AFC Cup campaign from the second preliminary round on April 12 where they will face Blue Star FC of Sri Lanka at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata.
Should Juan Ferrando's men win the second preliminary round, they will play the winners of Dhaka Abahani and Club Valenica in the play-offs round. The winner of play-offs round will qualify for the group stage.
Here we take a look at how ISL teams have fared in AFC competitions.
The Blues joined the ISL in the 2017-18 season and since then, they have participated in the AFC Cup on three occasions.
Bengaluru FC reached the Inter-Zonal play-offs in 2018 but were ousted from the qualifying round in 2020 and then bowed out of the group stage in 2021.
Finished second in the 2017-18 ISL regular season, the Marina Machans embarked on their maiden appearance on the Asian stage in the 2019 AFC Cup. After winning the play-off round against Sri Lanka's Colombo FC, the team from south India finished second in Group E that comprised of Minerva Punjab (India), Manang Marshyangdi Club (Nepal) and Abahani Limited Dhaka (Bangladesh) and were ousted from the group stage.
Following the merger between ATK and Mohun Bagan, the club used Mohun Bagan's direct route to the AFC Cup as 2019-20 I-League champions.
The Mariners topped the group stage which had teams like Bashundhara Kings (Bangladesh), Bengaluru (India) and Maziya (Maldives) but bowed out against Uzbekistan's Nasaf in the Inter-zone play-off semi-finals.
The Gaurs finished first in the 2019-20 ISL regular season and clinched the maiden League Winners Shield title. They became the first ISL team to be inducted directly into the group stage of the AFC Champions League.
Drawn in Group E alongside Persopolis (Tehran), Al-Rayyan (Qatar) and Al-Wahda (UAE), FC Goa did not win a single match but managed to clinch two draws. They were ousted from the group stage.