Guangzhou Evergrande were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Western Sydney Wanderers in the quarter-finals.

In the final, Western Sydney Wanderers of Australia defeated Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1–0 on aggregate, to become the first Australian team to win the title,[1] and in doing so qualified for the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup.

The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

The winners of each tie in round 3 advanced to the group stage to join the 28 automatic qualifiers.

All losers of each round from associations with only play-off slots entered the 2014 AFC Cup group stage.

[19] The "country protection" rule was not applied, so teams from the same association could be drawn into the same tie.

Note: Goals scored in qualifying play-off not counted (see regulations, Article 74c).