2018 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

The 2018 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs were played from 22 January to 20 February 2018.^[1] A total of 13 teams competed in the qualifying play-offs to decide five of the 36 places in the group stage of the 2018 AFC Cup.^[2]

Teams

The following 13 teams, split into five zones (West Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, ASEAN Zone, East Asia Zone), entered the qualifying play-offs, consisting of two rounds:

• 6 teams entered in the preliminary round.
• 7 teams entered in the play-off round.

Zone	Teams entering in play-off round	Teams entering in preliminary round
West Asia Zone	Al-Suwaiq Hilal Al-Quds
Central Asia Zone	Khujand	Ahal[note 1] Dordoi
South Asia Zone		Bengaluru TC Sports Saif[note 1] Transport United
ASEAN Zone	Lao Toyota[note 2] Boeung Ket Angkor[note 1]
East Asia Zone	Hwaebul Erchim

Format

In the qualifying play-offs, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 9.3). The five winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 31 direct entrants.^[2]

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows (W: West Asia Zone; C: Central Asia Zone; S: South Asia Zone; A: ASEAN Zone; E: East Asia Zone).^[1]

Round	W		A		C, S, E
	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	Not played				23 January 2018	30 January 2018
Play-off round	22 January 2018	29 January 2018	29 January 2018	2 February 2018	13 February 2018	20 February 2018

Bracket

The bracket of the qualifying play-offs for each zone was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the second leg.^[5]

Play-off West Asia

• Al-Suwaiq advanced to Group A.

	Play-off round
	Hilal Al-Quds	0	1	1
	Al-Suwaiq	1	1	2

Play-off Central Asia

• Ahal advanced to Group D.

	Preliminary round						Play-off round
	Dordoi	1	2	3
	Ahal	3	2	5
							Ahal	1	2	3
							Khujand	0	0	0

Play-off South Asia

• Bengaluru advanced to Group E.

	Preliminary round						Play-off round
	Saif	0	1	1
	TC Sports	1	3	4
							TC Sports	2	0	2
							Bengaluru	3	5	8
	Transport United	0	0	0
	Bengaluru	0	3	3

Play-off ASEAN

• Boeung Ket Angkor advanced to Group F.

	Play-off round
	Boeung Ket Angkor	3	1	4
	Lao Toyota	3	0	3

Play-off East Asia

• Hwaebul advanced to Group I.

	Play-off round
	Erchim	0	0	0
	Hwaebul	4	3	7

Preliminary round

Summary

A total of six teams played in the preliminary round.

Central Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Dordoi	3–5	Ahal	1–3	2–2

South Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Transport United	0–3	Bengaluru	0–0	0–3
Saif	1–4	TC Sports	0–1	1–3

Central Asia Zone

Dordoi	1–3	Ahal
Zhyrgalbek Uulu 19'	Stats Report	Muhadow 1' Annaýew 75', 86'

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)

15:00 UTC+6

Dordoi Stadium, Bishkek

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Hussein Abo Yehia (Lebanon)

Ahal	2–2	Dordoi
Hajyýew 39' (pen.) Muhadow 88'	Stats Report	Gurbani 58', 69'

30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)

15:00 UTC+5

Sport Toplumy Stadium, Balkanabat

Attendance: 6,670

Referee: Khamis Al-Kuwari (Qatar)

Ahal won 5–3 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

Transport United	0–0	Bengaluru
	Stats Report

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)

18:00 UTC+6

Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu

Attendance: 3,100

Referee: Sivakorn Pu-udom (Thailand)

Bengaluru	3–0	Transport United
B. Haokip 27' Lalhlimpuia 54' T. Haokip 62'	Stats Report

30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)

20:00 UTC+5:30

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Attendance: 1,167

Referee: Mooud Bonyadifar (Iran)

Bengaluru won 3–0 on aggregate.

---

Saif	0–1	TC Sports
	Stats Report	Vlasichev 26'

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)

15:00 UTC+6

Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka

Attendance: 7,000

Referee: Yaqoob Abdul Baki (Oman)

TC Sports	3–1	Saif
Vlasichev 23', 84' (pen.), 88'	Stats Report	Chigozie 33'

30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)

21:00 UTC+5

Rasmee Dhandu Stadium, Malé

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Çarymyrat Kurbanow (Turkmenistan)

TC Sports won 4–1 on aggregate.

Play-off round

Summary

A total of 10 teams played in the play-off round: seven teams which entered in this round, and three winners of the preliminary round.

West Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Hilal Al-Quds	1–2	Al-Suwaiq	0–1	1–1

Central Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ahal	3–0	Khujand	1–0	2–0

South Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
TC Sports	2–8	Bengaluru	2–3	0–5

ASEAN Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Boeung Ket Angkor	4–3	Lao Toyota	3–3	1–0

East Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Erchim	0–7	Hwaebul	0–4	0–3

West Asia Zone

Hilal Al-Quds	0–1	Al-Suwaiq
	Stats Report	Al-Busaidi 26'

22 January 2018 (2018-01-22)

17:00 UTC+2

Arab American University Stadium, Jenin

Attendance: 1,450

Referee: Dmitry Mashentsev (Kyrgyzstan)

Al-Suwaiq	1–1	Hilal Al-Quds
Al-Muqbali 69'	Stats Report	Yameen 19'

29 January 2018 (2018-01-29)

19:00 UTC+4

Al-Seeb Stadium, Seeb

Attendance: 4,300

Referee: Hanna Hattab (Syria)

Al-Suwaiq won 2–1 on aggregate.

Central Asia Zone

Ahal	1–0	Khujand
Annaýew 18' (pen.)	Stats Report

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)

15:00 UTC+5

Sport Toplumy Stadium, Balkanabat

Attendance: 9,300

Referee: Ahmed Al-Ali (Jordan)

Khujand	0–2	Ahal
	Stats Report	Ylýasow 49' Muhadow 52'

20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)

14:00 UTC+5

20 Years of Independence Stadium, Khujand

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Nivon Robesh Gamini (Sri Lanka)

Ahal won 3–0 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

TC Sports	2–3	Bengaluru
Vlasichev 71' Mahudhee 73'	Stats Report	T. Haokip 51', 78' Paartalu 69'

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)

21:00 UTC+5

Rasmee Dhandu Stadium, Malé

Attendance: 890

Referee: Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)

Bengaluru	5–0	TC Sports
Dovale 12', 35', 48' Paartalu 36' Bheke 90+1'	Stats Report

20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)

20:00 UTC+5:30

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore

Attendance: 1,473

Referee: Turki Al-Khudhayr (Saudi Arabia)

Bengaluru won 8–2 on aggregate.

ASEAN Zone

Boeung Ket Angkor	3–3	Lao Toyota
Maycon 6' (pen.), 53' Laboravy 60'	Stats Report	Honma 30', 87' Pooda 79'

29 January 2018 (2018-01-29)

18:30 UTC+7

Olympic Stadium, Phnom Penh

Attendance: 1,778

Referee: Yu Ming-hsun (Chinese Taipei)

Lao Toyota	0–1	Boeung Ket Angkor
	Stats Report	Laboravy 61'

2 February 2018 (2018-02-02)

18:00 UTC+7

New Laos National Stadium, Vientiane

Attendance: 450

Referee: Nagor Amir Noor Mohamed (Malaysia)

Boeung Ket Angkor won 4–3 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

Erchim	0–4	Hwaebul
	Stats Report	Ri Chang-ho 9', 90' Ri Song 41' Ri Il-san 85'

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)

14:00 UTC+8

MFF Football Centre, Ulaanbaatar

Attendance: 335

Referee: Pranjal Banerjee (India)

Hwaebul	3–0	Erchim
Jang Kuk-chol 27' Choe Kwang-jin 41' Jon Chung-il 45+1'	Stats Report

20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)

15:00 UTC+8:30

Kim Il-sung Stadium, Pyongyang

Attendance: 31,010

Referee: Jansen Foo (Singapore)

Hwaebul won 7–0 on aggregate.

Notes

1. The identity of the play-off teams from Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia was not known at the time of the group stage draw.
2. On 14 December 2017, the AFC announced that Lao Toyota, the play-off team from Laos, were ruled ineligible to play in the 2018 AFC Cup due to match manipulation during the 2015 and 2016 AFC Cup.^[3] Lao Toyota appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and on 17 January 2018, CAS ruled Lao Toyota would be eligible to participate.^[4]