Marcello Lippi felt his Guangzhou Evergrande were deserved winners of the 2013 AFC Asian Champions League title.
The Chinese Super League club became the first team from their country to salute in the final in more than two decades when they drew 1-1 with FC Seoul at the Tianhe Stadium on Saturday.
The result allowed Guangzhou to triumph on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate and Lippi, who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy, felt his side were the best team throughout the entire competition.
"You should look at the Round of 16 when we beat the Australian team (Central Coast Mariners) 2-1 and then 3-0," he said.
"Then we went off to Qatar and we beat them (Lekhwiya) there and beat them at home. We beat Kashiwa 4-1 away and then beat them 4-0 at home, so obviously I think you should recognise that we deserve to be champions this year.
"I would like to personally justify this by saying that I lost a UEFA Champions League final against AC Milan and they hadn't won any of their previous three Champions League matches, they drew them all and we lost on penalties. They won and became champions of the UEFA Champions League.
"Anything can happen but I think this year in all of Asia throughout this year we are the team that deserves this the most."
