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2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round
International football competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The third round of AFC matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 5 September 2024 to 10 June 2025.[1]
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Format
The 18 teams that advanced from the second round (nine group winners and nine group runners-up) were divided into three groups of six teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top two teams of each group qualified directly for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while the third and fourth-placed teams advanced to the fourth round.[2]
Qualified teams
The following teams finished first or second in their respective second round groups:[3]
Draw
The draw for the third round was held on 27 June 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[3]
The seeding for the draw was based on the FIFA Men's World Rankings on 20 June 2024 (shown in parentheses below).[4]
Each group contained one team from each of the six pots. The draw started with Pot 6 and concluded with Pot 1, with each team drawn being placed in the corresponding position sequentially in Group A, then B, then C.[5]
Note: Bold indicates team qualified for the World Cup. Italics indicates the team advanced to the fourth round.
Schedule
The competition schedule was as follows:[1][6]
Group A
Attendance: 140
Referee: Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)
Attendance: 100
Referee: Sadullo Gulmurodi (Tajikistan)
Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)[note 3]
Attendance: 223
Referee: Mohammed Al Hoish (Saudi Arabia)
Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)[note 3]
Attendance: 100
Referee: Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)
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Group B
Kuala Lumpur Stadium, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)[note 4]
Attendance: 3,012
Referee: Majed Al-Shamrani (Saudi Arabia)
Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha (Qatar)[note 4]
Attendance: 1,827
Referee: Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar)
Attendance: 29,400
Referee: Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)
Amman International Stadium, Amman (Jordan)[note 4]
Attendance: 7,305
Referee: Khalid Al-Turais (Saudi Arabia)
Attendance: 41,322
Referee: Salman Ahmad Falahi (Qatar)
Attendance: 5,250
Referee: Sadullo Gulmurodi (Tajikistan)
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Group C
Attendance: 37,133
Referee: Omar Al-Ali (United Arab Emirates)
Attendance: 27,491
Referee: Adel Al-Naqbi (United Arab Emirates)
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Goalscorers
There were 231 goals scored in 90 matches, for an average of 2.57 goals per match.
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
Lewis Miller- Kusini Yengi
Mahdi Abduljabbar- Mohamed Marhoon
Zhang Yuning
Marselino Ferdinan
Mehdi Ghayedi
Ibrahim Bayesh
Ayase Ueda
Musa Al-Taamari
Mohammad Daham
Alimardon Shukurov
Kim Yu-song- Pak Kwang-hun
Muhsen Al-Ghassani- Abdulrahman Al-Mushaifri
- Issam Al-Sabhi
Zaid Qunbar- Tamer Seyam
Akram Afif- Ibrahim Al-Hassan
- Lucas Mendes
Abdulrahman Al-Aboud- Musab Al-Juwayr
- Hassan Kadesh
Hwang Hee-chan- Oh Se-hun
Yahya Al-Ghassani
Eldor Shomurodov
1 goal
- Aziz Behich
- Martin Boyle
- Mitchell Duke
- Craig Goodwin
- Connor Metcalfe
- Behram Abduweli
- Lin Liangming
- Wang Yudong
- Xie Wenneng
- Thom Haye
- Ragnar Oratmangoen
- Rafael Struick
- Sandy Walsh
- Saleh Hardani
- Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh
- Mohammad Mehdi Mohebi
- Youssef Amyn
- Akam Hashim
- Sajjad Jassim
- Wataru Endo
- Mao Hosoya
- Ko Itakura
- Junya Itō
- Shūto Machino
- Daizen Maeda
- Kaoru Mitoma
- Ryōya Morishita
- Yukinari Sugawara
- Yazan Al-Arab
- Noor Al-Rawabdeh
- Abdallah Nasib
- Odilzhon Abdurakhmanov
- Gulzhigit Alykulov
- Khristiyan Brauzman
- Valery Kichin
- Kai Merk
- Aleksandr Mishchenko
- Jong Il-gwan
- Kang Kuk-chol
- Ri Il-song
- Ri Jo-guk
- Ali Al-Busaidi
- Abdullah Fawaz
- Oday Kharoub
- Ameed Mahajna
- Ahmed Al-Rawi
- Ahmed Alaaeldin
- Ahmed Al Ganehi
- Pedro Miguel
- Salem Al-Dawsari
- Bae Jun-ho
- Joo Min-kyu
- Kim Jin-gyu
- Lee Kang-in
- Sultan Adil
- Khaled Ibrahim
- Marcus Meloni
- Ali Saleh
- Khojiakbar Alijonov
- Husniddin Aliqulov
- Khojimat Erkinov
- Jaloliddin Masharipov
- Igor Sergeev
- Otabek Shukurov
- Azizbek Turgunboev
- Oston Urunov
1 own goal
- Cameron Burgess (against Japan)
- Harry Souttar (against Bahrain)
- Justin Hubner (against Japan)
- Mehdi Taremi (against North Korea)
- Shogo Taniguchi (against Australia)
- Fahad Al Hajeri (against South Korea)
- Tamirlan Kozubayev (against Qatar)
- Kim Sung-hye (against Kyrgyzstan)
- Kim Yu-song (against Qatar)
- Ismaeel Mohammad (against Iran)
- Ali Lajami (against China)
- Jung Seung-hyun (against Oman)
- Kwon Kyung-won (against Jordan)
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Discipline
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A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions:[16]
- Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions)
- Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the third round:
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See also
Notes
- AFC moved the match to a neutral venue due to security concerns relating to the October 2024 Israeli strikes on Iran (Operation Days of Repentance).[9]
- Because of traffic accidents holding up the Australians on the Shuto Expressway, Football Australia and JFA jointly requested to slightly postpone the match, but were denied by the AFC match commissioner.[12][13] Australia started warming up at 19:06, 29 minutes before kick-off.[13] Australia, staying in the Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo in downtown Bunkyō, Tokyo,[12][14] took 2 hours 9 minutes (16:37–18:46) to arrive the stadium via chartered coach,[12] while ordinary driving time from Tokyo Station is estimated to be 40 minutes, according to the stadium.[15]
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References
External links
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