2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

The 2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs were played from 5 February to 13 March 2019.^[1] A total of 11 teams competed in the qualifying play-offs to decide four of the 36 places in the group stage of the 2019 AFC Cup.^[2]

Teams

The following 11 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.
• 5 teams entered in the play-off round.

Zone	Teams entering in play-off round	Teams entering in preliminary round
West Asia Zone	Al-Nasr Hilal Al-Quds
Central Asia Zone	Khujand	Ahal Alay
South Asia Zone	Chennaiyin	Transport United Colombo
ASEAN Zone	None
East Asia Zone	Tai Po	Ryomyong 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 four winners of the play-off round (one each from West Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, East Asia Zone) advanced to the group stage to join the 32 direct entrants.^[2]

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows.^[1][3]

Round	West Asia Zone		Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, East Asia Zone
	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	Not played		20 February 2019	27 February 2019
Play-off round	5 February 2019	12 February 2019	6 March 2019	13 March 2019

Bracket

The bracket of the qualifying play-offs for each zone, determined based on the association ranking of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the second leg, was officially announced by the AFC prior to the group stage draw on 22 November 2018.^[4]

Play-off West Asia

• Hilal Al-Quds advanced to Group A.

	Play-off round
	Hilal Al-Quds	2	1	3
	Al-Nasr	1	0	1

Play-off Central Asia

• Khujand advanced to Group D.

	Preliminary round						Play-off round
	Alay	1	0	1
	Ahal	2	1	3
							Ahal	1	0	1
							Khujand (a)	1	0	1

Play-off South Asia

• Chennaiyin advanced to Group E.

	Preliminary round						Play-off round
	Colombo	7	2	9
	Transport United	1	1	2
							Colombo	0	0	0
							Chennaiyin	0	1	1

Play-off East Asia

• Tai Po advanced to Group I.

	Preliminary round						Play-off round
	Erchim	0	0	0
	Ryomyong	3	3	6
							Ryomyong	0	0	0 (3)
							Tai Po (p)	0	0	0 (5)

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
Alay	1–3	Ahal	1–2	0–1

South Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Colombo	9–2	Transport United	7–1	2–1

East Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Erchim	0–6	Ryomyong	0–3	0–3

Central Asia Zone

Alay	1–2	Ahal
Sardarbekov 36'	Report	Bäşimow 20', 38'

20 February 2019 (2019-02-20)

14:00 UTC+6

Suyumbayev Stadion, Osh

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Omar Al-Yaqoubi (Oman)

Ahal	1–0	Alay
Gurbanow 35'	Report

27 February 2019 (2019-02-27)

18:00 UTC+5

Ashgabat Stadium, Ashgabat

Attendance: 10,500

Referee: Mohammed Al-Hoish (Saudi Arabia)

Ahal won 3–1 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

Colombo	7–1	Transport United
Aakib 5', 8', 11' Tagne 27', 76', 87' Rahuman 81'	Report	Lepcha 77'

20 February 2019 (2019-02-20)

15:30 UTC+5:30

Colombo Racecourse, Colombo

Attendance: 2,700

Referee: Hussein Abo Yehia (Lebanon)

Transport United	1–2	Colombo
Dorji 45'	Report	Fasal 62' Addevu 82'

27 February 2019 (2019-02-27)

18:00 UTC+6

Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu

Attendance: 826

Referee: Zhang Lei (China)

Colombo won 9–2 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

Erchim	0–3	Ryomyong
	Report	Kim Song-min 12' (pen.) Ri Hun 19' Kim Kwang-jin 42'

20 February 2019 (2019-02-20)

14:00 UTC+8

MFF Football Centre, Ulaanbaatar

Attendance: 416

Referee: Yaqoub Al-Hammadi (United Arab Emirates)

Ryomyong	3–0	Erchim
Kim Song-min 35', 77' Pak Chol-yong 70'	Report

27 February 2019 (2019-02-27)

14:00 UTC+9

Kim Il-sung Stadium, Pyongyang

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Ahmad Yacoub Ibrahim (Jordan)

Ryomyong won 6–0 on aggregate.

Play-off round

Summary

A total of eight teams played in the play-off round: five 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	3–1	Al-Nasr	2–1	1–0

Central Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ahal	1–1 (a)	Khujand	1–1	0–0

South Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Colombo	0–1	Chennaiyin	0–0	0–1

East Asia Zone

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ryomyong	0–0 (3–5 p)	Tai Po	0–0	0–0 (a.e.t.)

West Asia Zone

Hilal Al-Quds	2–1	Al-Nasr
Dabbagh 51' Farawi 54'	Report	Abdel-Halim 64'

5 February 2019 (2019-02-05)

17:00 UTC+2

Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, Al-Ram

Attendance: 3,150

Referee: Muhammad Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)

Al-Nasr	0–1	Hilal Al-Quds
	Report	Dabbagh 74'

12 February 2019 (2019-02-12)

19:30 UTC+4

Salalah Sports Complex, Salalah

Attendance: 350

Referee: Ali Shaban (Kuwait)

Hilal Al-Quds won 3–1 on aggregate.

Central Asia Zone

Ahal	1–1	Khujand
Durdyýew 29'	Report	J. Ergashev 11'

6 March 2019 (2019-03-06)

18:00 UTC+5

Ashgabat Stadium, Ashgabat

Attendance: 18,100

Referee: C. R. Srikrishna (India)

Khujand	0–0	Ahal
	Report

13 March 2019 (2019-03-13)

14:00 UTC+5

20 Years of Independence Stadium, Khujand

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Sivakorn Pu-udom (Thailand)

1–1 on aggregate. Khujand won on away goals.

South Asia Zone

Colombo	0–0	Chennaiyin
	Report

6 March 2019 (2019-03-06)

15:30 UTC+5:30

Colombo Racecourse, Colombo

Attendance: 2,850

Referee: Mohammad Arafah (Jordan)

Chennaiyin	1–0	Colombo
Lalpekhlua 68'	Report

13 March 2019 (2019-03-13)

19:30 UTC+5:30

The Arena, Ahmedabad

Attendance: 2,842

Referee: Ammar Mahfoodh (Bahrain)

Chennaiyin won 1–0 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

Ryomyong	0–0	Tai Po
	Report

6 March 2019 (2019-03-06)

16:00 UTC+9

Kim Il-sung Stadium, Pyongyang

Attendance: 3,800

Referee: Payam Heidari (Iran)

Tai Po	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Ryomyong
	Report
Penalties
Sartori João Emir Eduardo Sawyer Sandro	5–3	Jo Kwang-myong Ro Jong-hyok Pak Kwang-chon Pak Chol-yong

13 March 2019 (2019-03-13)

20:00 UTC+8

Mong Kok Stadium, Hong Kong

Attendance: 4,434

Referee: Sherzod Kasimov (Uzbekistan)

0–0 on aggregate. Tai Po won 5–3 on penalties.

Notes