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Chinese club Henan are cancelling the lunar New Year holiday in a bid to make a big impression in their first Asian Champions League (ACL) campaign, according to manager Yang Nan.

The spring festival, which falls in mid-February next year, is the most important family holiday in China — the equivalent of Christmas in the West — and the vast country grinds to halt for a week of feasting and fireworks.

The Henan squad, however, will be kept in training camp throughout to prepare for their opening ACL group fixture on Feb. 24, according to Yang.

"This is a great opportunity for Henan to play in the AFC Champions League and it didn't come easily," she told the Asian Football Confederation's website (the-afc.com).

"The whole club will band together and do their utmost for the ACL. We will cancel the Chinese New Year holidays so that we can focus on the ACL, which kicks off earlier than the Chinese Super League."

Henan, who finished third behind Beijing and Changchun in the CSL to take one of China's four spots in the Champions League, face 2008 ACL champions Gamba Osaka of Japan, South Korea's Suwon Bluewings and a qualifier in the group stage.

If Henan succeed in getting out of the group, they would be the first Chinese team to reach the knockout stages of the ACL since Shanghai Shenhua reached the quarter-finals in 2006.