2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

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2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Teams	(from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	111
Goals scored	340 (3.06 per match)
Attendance	1,621,477 (14,608 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Omar Al Somah (7 goals)
← 2018 2026 →

The Asian section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification acts as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Apart from Qatar, who qualified automatically as hosts, a total of 4.5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament are available for AFC teams.

The qualification process involves four rounds, where the first two rounds double as the qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. Despite qualifying as hosts, Qatar are participating in these first two rounds to seek Asian Cup qualification. The first two rounds also act as qualifiers for the 2020 AFC Solidarity Cup.

Format

The qualification structure is as follows:

• First round: 12 teams (ranked 35–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.
• Second round: 40 teams (ranked 1–34 and six first-round winners) were divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The eight group winners and the four best group runners-up advance to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualification as well as qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup finals. Should Qatar finish as group winners or one of the best four runners-up, the fifth-best runners-up will take their place in the third round.
• Third round: 12 teams which will have advanced from the second round will be divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will qualify for the World Cup, and the third-placed teams will advance to the fourth round.
• Fourth round: The two third-placed teams from the third round will play home and away over two legs. The winner will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All 46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification. The FIFA World Rankings of April 2019 were used to determine which nations would compete in the first round. For seeding in the second round and third round draws, the most recent FIFA Rankings prior to those draws will be used.

Due to the joint format of the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, both Qatar (as the host nation of the 2022 World Cup) and China (as the host nation of the 2023 Asian Cup) will also enter the second round of Asian Cup qualifiers.

Timor-Leste was banned from participating in the Asian Cup qualification after being found to have fielded a total of 12 ineligible players in 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches among other competitions. However, as FIFA did not ban them from the World Cup qualifiers, Timor-Leste was allowed to enter the competition, but was ineligible to qualify for the Asian Cup.

From the April 2019 FIFA World Rankings

Bye to the second round (Ranked 1st to 34th)

Competing in first round (Ranked 35th to 46th)

Iran (21) Japan (26) South Korea (37) Australia (41) Qatar (55) United Arab Emirates (67) Saudi Arabia (72) China (74) Iraq (76) Syria (83) Uzbekistan (85) Lebanon (86) Oman (86) Kyrgyzstan (95) Jordan (97) Vietnam (98) Palestine (99) India (101) Bahrain (111) Thailand (114) Tajikistan (120) North Korea (121) Philippines (124) Chinese Taipei (125) Turkmenistan (136) Myanmar (140) Hong Kong (141) Yemen (146) Afghanistan (149) Maldives (151) Kuwait (156) Indonesia (159) Singapore (160) Nepal (161)

35.Malaysia (168) 36.Cambodia (173) 37.Macau (183) 38.Laos (184) 39.Bhutan (186) 40.Mongolia (187) 41.Bangladesh (188) 42.Guam (193) 43.Brunei (194) 44.Timor-Leste (195) 45.Pakistan (200) 46.Sri Lanka (202)

Schedule

Round Matchday Date First round First leg 6 June 2019 Second leg 11 June 2019 Second round Matchday 1 5 September 2019 Matchday 2 10 September 2019 Matchday 3 10 October 2019 Matchday 4 15 October 2019 Matchday 5 14 November 2019 Matchday 6 19 November 2019 Matchday 7 26 March 2020 Matchday 8 31 March 2020 Matchday 9 4 June 2020 Matchday 10 9 June 2020

Round Matchday Date Third round Matchday 1 3 September 2020 Matchday 2 8 September 2020 Matchday 3 13 October 2020 Matchday 4 12 November 2020 Matchday 5 17 November 2020 Matchday 6 25 March 2021 Matchday 7 30 March 2021 Matchday 8 8 June 2021 Matchday 9 7 September 2021 Matchday 10 12 October 2021 Fourth round First leg 11 November 2021 Second leg 16 November 2021

The inter-confederation play-offs are scheduled to be played in March 2022.

First round

Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC First Round

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mongolia	3–2	Brunei	2–0	1–2
Macau	1–3	Sri Lanka	1–0	0–3 (awd.)
Laos	0–1	Bangladesh	0–1	0–0
Malaysia	12–2	Timor-Leste	7–1	5–1
Cambodia	4–1	Pakistan	2–0	2–1
Bhutan	1–5	Guam	1–0	0–5

Second round

Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round

The draw for the second round was held on 17 July 2019 at 17:00 MST (UTC+8), at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Groups

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Syria	8	7	0	1	22	7	+15	21	Third round and Asian Cup
China	8	6	1	1	30	3	+27	19	Third round
Philippines	8	3	2	3	12	11	+1	11	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Maldives	8	2	1	5	7	20	−13	7
Guam	8	0	0	8	2	32	−30	0	Asian Cup qualifying play-off round

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Australia	8	8	0	0	28	2	+26	24	Third round and Asian Cup
Kuwait	8	4	2	2	19	7	+12	14	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Jordan	8	4	2	2	13	3	+10	14
Nepal	8	2	0	6	4	22	−18	6
Chinese Taipei	8	0	0	8	4	34	−30	0	Asian Cup qualifying play-off round

Group C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Iran	8	6	0	2	34	4	+30	18	Third round and Asian Cup
Iraq	8	5	2	1	14	4	+10	17
Bahrain	8	4	3	1	15	4	+11	15	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Hong Kong	8	1	2	5	4	13	−9	5
Cambodia	8	0	1	7	2	44	−42	1	Asian Cup qualifying play-off round

Group D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Saudi Arabia	8	6	2	0	22	4	+18	20	Third round and Asian Cup
Uzbekistan	8	5	0	3	18	9	+9	15	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Palestine	8	3	1	4	10	10	0	10
Singapore	8	2	1	5	7	22	−15	7
Yemen	8	1	2	5	6	18	−12	5

Group E

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Qatar	8	7	1	0	18	1	+17	22	Asian Cup
Oman	8	6	0	2	16	6	+10	18	Third round and Asian Cup
India	8	1	4	3	6	7	−1	7	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Afghanistan	8	1	3	4	5	15	−10	6
Bangladesh	8	0	2	6	3	19	−16	2

Group F

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Japan	8	8	0	0	46	2	+44	24	Third round and Asian Cup
Tajikistan	8	4	1	3	14	12	+2	13	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Kyrgyzstan	8	3	1	4	19	12	+7	10
Mongolia	8	2	0	6	3	27	−24	6
Myanmar	8	2	0	6	6	35	−29	6

Group G

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
United Arab Emirates	8	6	0	2	23	7	+16	18	Third round and Asian Cup
Vietnam	8	5	2	1	13	5	+8	17
Malaysia	8	4	0	4	10	12	−2	12	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Thailand	8	2	3	3	9	9	0	9
Indonesia	8	0	1	7	5	27	−22	1	Asian Cup qualifying play-off round

Group H

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
South Korea	6	5	1	0	22	1	+21	16	Third round and Asian Cup
Lebanon	6	3	1	2	11	8	+3	10
Turkmenistan	6	3	0	3	8	11	−3	9	Asian Cup qualifying third round
Sri Lanka	6	0	0	6	2	23	−21	0
North Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew

Ranking of runner-up teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	PW	PL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A											Qualification for the World Cup qualifying third round and Asian Cup
2	B
3	C
4	D
5	E
6	F
7	G
8	H

Third round

Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Third Round

The third round consists of two groups of six teams. The first two teams in each group will qualify for the World Cup. The two third-placed teams proceed to the fourth round.

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Iran	10	8	1	1	15	4	+11	25	Qualification to 2022 FIFA World Cup
South Korea	10	7	2	1	13	3	+10	23
United Arab Emirates	10	3	3	4	7	7	0	12	Advance to fourth round
Iraq	10	1	6	3	6	12	−6	9
Syria	10	1	3	6	9	16	−7	6
Lebanon	10	1	3	6	5	13	−8	6

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Saudi Arabia	10	7	2	1	12	6	+6	23	Qualification to 2022 FIFA World Cup
Japan	10	7	1	2	12	4	+8	22
Australia	10	4	3	3	15	9	+6	15	Advance to fourth round
Oman	10	4	2	4	11	10	+1	14
China	10	1	3	6	9	19	−10	6
Vietnam	10	1	1	8	8	19	−11	4

Fourth round

Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Fourth Round

The two third-placed teams in each group from the third round will play against each other home-and-away over two legs to determine which team advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

The order of legs will be announced during the draw for the third round. Template:2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Fourth Round

Inter-confederation play-offs

Main article: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC–AFC play-off)

The inter-confederation play-offs format is expected to be announced at a later date. Matches are scheduled to be played in March 2022.

Qualified teams

The following teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Qatar	* !Hosts	02010-12-02-2 December 2010	0 (debut)

See also

• 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification

External links

• Official website
  • Qualifiers – Asia, FIFA.com
• FIFA World Cup, the-AFC.com