Where things stand summary Group A Qatar 12 (+13) India 4 (-3) Afghanistan 4 (-10) Kuwait 3 (-1) To Play Afghanistan V Qatar India v Kuwait Kuwait v Afghanistan Qatar V India Qatar qualify for 3rd round and 2027 Asian Cup All the others can still qualify on their own efforts without relying on other teams to lose. Group B Japan 9 (+11) Syria 7 (+3) North Korea 3 (+3) Myanmar 1 (-17) To Play North Korea v Japan * Myanmar v Japan North Korea v Syria Japan v Syria North Korea v Myanmar Who knows. Will North Korea play another game? What will happen if they don't? No one has qualified and no one is eliminated at this stage. Group C South Korea 10 (+11) China 7 (+1) Thailand 4 (-2) Singapore 1 (-10) Singapore v Sth Korea China v Thailand Sth Korea v China Thailand v Singapore Mathematically no one through and no one eliminated although Singapore need two big wins and 2 losses for China to have any chance and Sth Korea need to stuff up big time and have Thailand beat China before goal difference could come into play. I've a suspicion the China/Thailand game will decide the second spot.
Group D Kyrgyzstan 9 (+6) Oman 9 (+6) Malaysia 6 (-2) Chinese Taipei 0 (-10) Chinese Taipei v Oman Kyrgyzstan v Malaysia Oman v Kyrgyzstan Malaysia v Chinese Taipei Chinese Taipei are eliminated. Malaysia needs something from their first game to have a chance. I think the current top 2 are favoured. Group E Iran 10 (+10) Uzbekistan 10 (+7) Turkmenistan 1 (-8) Hong Kong 1 (-9) Hong Kong V Iran Uzbekistan v Turkmenistan Iran v Uzbekistan Turkmenistan v Hong Kong Group decided in terms of who goes on to Asian Cup 2027 and World Cup round 3 and who goes onto next phase of Asian Cup qualifying. Two very strong teams made it tough for the others. Group F Iraq 12 (+11) Indonesia 7 (0) Vietnam 3 (-3) Philippines 1 (-8) Indonesia v Iraq Vietnam v Philippines Iraq v Vietnam Indonesia v Philippines Iraq go through. Mathematical chances for Philippines and Vietnam provided Indonesia lose twice but the odds favour Indonesia.
Group G Saudi Arabia 10 (+7) Jordan 7 (+8) Tajikistan 5 (+4) Pakistan 0 (-19) Pakistan v Saudi Arabia Jordan v Tajikistan Saudi Arabia v Jordan Tajikistan v Pakistan Saudi in the box seat to qualify and can do so with a win against Pakistan, who have found it tough so far. Jordan need to win against Tajikistan to qualify. Anything else will lead to a nervous last round. Group H UAE 12 (+10) Bahrain 9 (+8) Yemen 3 (-4) Nepal 0 (-14) Nepal v UAE Bahrain v Yemen UAE v Bahrain Yemen v Nepal UEA qualify. Bahrain needs a point. Yemen needs two big wins along with two losses by Bahrain and then hope goal difference will be enough. Nepal go on to the next round of Asian Cup qualifying Group I Australia 12 (+15) Palestine 7 (+5) Lebanon 2 (-7) Bangladesh 1 (-13) Bangladesh v Australia Palestine v Lebanon Australia v Palestine Lebanon v Bangladesh Australia qualify. Palestine need a point against Lebanon. Lebanon need two wins and hope Australia beat Palestine, or if a draw that they score enough goals to overturn a 12 goal differential. Bangladesh need two huge wins and Palestine to lose twice with enough goals to overcome a 18 goal differential.
18 teams will be featured in R3 in 3 groups with 6 teams in each group. If the groups are arranged in pots based on FIFA rankings, those pots would probably look something as follows using the last FIFA rankings. The: qualification of teams with an asterisk is likely but not assured at all. The rest have either clinched or are almost certain to do so. They are listed numerically based their AFC/FIFA ranking. POT 1: 1- Japan 2- Iran 3- S. Korea POT 2: 4- Australia 5- Qatar 6- Saudi Arabia POT 3: 7- Iraq 8- Uzbekistan 9- UAE POT 4: 10- Jordan* 11- Oman* 12- Bahrain POT 5: 13- China* 14- Syria* 15- Palestine* POT 6: 18- Kyrgyz Rep* 24- Kuwait** 27- Indonesia*
Now I'm back home after a trip to Canberra I thought I would share some thoughts. Social media (and some former big name reporters) seem to delight in criticising the Australian team for "negative" tactics and/or sloppy play. I still think they do pretty good for what they are and always play with maximum effort and have obvious pride and joy representing their country. I'm not sure why some expect them to play like a Premier League side when none of the players are good enough as individuals to be playing at that level. Having a seat at ground level I can see one reason why we haven't conceded a goal in WCQ yet. Our current central defenders are really big units and can be quite intimidating for teams that aren't used to playing against people like that. Lebanon didn't quite have the same energy as Thursday night where they had much more crowd support. Pretty much all Australian fans in Canberra. Goodwin's return from a virus made a big difference and he was a handful all night. A couple of debuts for Australia and a couple more scoring their first goals for the national team. Four debutant scorers across the two games is hopefully a good sign that players are improving their finishing skills. First time at Canberra Stadium for me. The surface was a big improvement on last week, although the stadium itself is old and tired and poorly designed. The eastern side bowl and stand suffer from a bad conversion from an athletic stadium and offer poor sightlines for spectators. Overall glad I went, it was very doubtful for a few days after my face swelled up on one side and was very painful. Only got the all clear that I wasn't infectious at lunchtime on the day so drove down that afternoon. Still a bit sore and on a dose of antibiotics after a salivary gland infection. Having an ultrasound tomorrow to check for stones etc.
India really had a bad round. If they won against Afghanistan, they Would just have needed a draw against Kuwait to qualify for the next round. Now they have to win. 1 points against Afghanistan in 2 games is really disappointing
I think it is over for us. Stimac has to go. Poor game management, poor squad analysis and poor tactics. At the end of the game, the Indian home fans did the Viking clap with the Afghanistani players, such an embarrassment.
After the win in Kuwait, I thought India Would go through pretty comfortably. Its not over yet, but it got much for difficult. Indian football has Been slowly progressing over the years. And qualifying for the next round is a Huge an important step
If we can't beat a C team of Afghanistan, on a neutral ground or at home we don't deserve to go through. Our only goal since that Kuwait game has been a penalty. India's football program has surely progressed but it's not anywhere near the rate of other teams. We don't even have anyone apart from Chhetri who's clinical enough to score goals and he has been out of form. The only hope is that Qatar don't take that game seriously but it still would be a stretch for us. Kuwait have Afghanistan which is much easier obviously. So it boils down to that to that game vs Kuwait in June.
This round was never going to be too exciting as 18 teams go through, however there are some interesting match-ups going into the final math day in June. In group A, Kuwait and India are fighting to see who will go through as second. India should have wrapped it up, however they gained a single point from Afghanistans B/C team. Everything will come down to the Kuwait India game. Kuwait had a great game at home against Qatar, so I'm leaning towards them. In Group B, I wish North Korea will continue to play, they haven't been bad at all, and certainly have a chance. Regardless, Syria should go through here. In Group C, China, like India, should have had the second spot wrapped up after they beat Thailand away. However, they surprisingly drew away at Singapore, and Thailand also got an unlikely point against South Korea. All will come down to the game they play, as South Korea should beat China and Thailand should beat Singapore. Im slightly leaning China as they will be at home, but this one is really hard to predict. Group D is really interesting as there is no team who is looking much better than the other. It's a 3 way between Oman, Kyrgzstan and Malaysia. Oman will likely beat Taipei and that should be enough for them. The Kyrgyzstan Malaysia math will be super important. No idea what will happen here. The most exciting math-up is in Group G. Jordan and Tajikistan are fighting for the second spot. I honestly believe both these teams are among the best 18 in Asia, but one will be eliminated. Jordan will likely need a win at home against Tajikistan to go through.
Afghanistan shouldn't be discarded. They have the quality to pull through if they get all their players back.
Japan have been awarded a 3-0 win after DPR Korea forfeited the match at Pyongyang and due to their inability to provide an alternative venue on time.
I predicted the two remaining matchdays and generated the pots for round 3 of AFC WC and conducted a mock draw Here the results of the mock draw: Group A Japan Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan Jordan Thailand Afghanistan Group B Iran Qatar UAE Bahrain Syria Indonesia Group C South Korea Australia Iraq Oman Palestine Kyrgyzstan The teams are listed in the order of my pots