World Cup qualifying Asia: Who will be the representatives?

Football is considered the most famous sport in Asia. Although there has been none of Asian national team winning the World Cup title since its inception, every match on the race to the final is always interesting and anxious to follow. Let’s figure out how things happen in the World Cup Asian qualifiers.

By: Frank Merino

05/08/2021 00:27

How many Asian teams are qualified for World Cup 2022?

There will be 4.5 slots for football teams from the AFC (Asian Football Confederation). Why 4.5? The top four teams from 46 teams joining the Asian qualifying stage will be automatically qualified for the final tournament of the World Cup, the last slot is from the Inter-Confederation playoffs.

However, in this upcoming season of the World Cup in 2022, Qatar, which belongs to the Asia continent, will be directly sent to the official World Cup tournament due to being the host in this season. But in fact, Qatar has still participated in the qualifying rounds to warm up the tournament and no matter the results from the qualifying matches are, they will not affect Qatar’s automatic qualification for the competition proper.

What is the greatest achievement of Asian teams in the FIFA World Cup history?

The highest rank for the Asian football teams in the World Cup is the fourth place of South Korea national team in the 2002 season. You can see the detailed best achievements of some typical national teams in Asia in the table below:

*Best results of Asian teams in the World Cup history*
Country	Appearances	Years	Best result
South Korea	10	1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018	4th
Japan	6	1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018	R2
Australia	5	1974, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018	R2
Saudi Arabia	5	1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018	R2
Iran	5	1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018	R1
North Korea	2	1966, 2010	QF
Indonesia	1	1938	R1
Israel	1	1970	R1
Kuwait	1	1982	R1
Iraq	1	1986	R1
United Arab Emirates	1	1990	R1
China PR	1	2002	R1

Glossary:

4th: Fourth place
QF: Quarterfinals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8)
R2: Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: the second group stage, top 12; 1986–present: knockout round of 16)
R1: Round 1

South Korea national team in the 2002 World Cup

South Korea national team in the 2002 World Cup

Current standings of the World Cup qualifiers in Asia

The World Cup qualifying in Asia is reaching the second round, with the result is as below:

Group A

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Syria	5	5	0	0	14	4	10	15
China	4	2	1	1	13	2	11	7
Philippines	5	2	1	2	8	8	0	7
Maldives	5	2	0	3	6	10	-4	6
Guam	5	0	0	5	2	19	-17	0

Group B

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Australia	4	4	0	0	16	1	15	12
Kuwait	5	3	1	1	17	3	14	10
Jordan	5	3	1	1	10	2	8	10
Nepal	5	1	0	4	2	16	-14	3
Chinese Taipei	5	0	0	5	2	25	-23	0

Group C

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Iraq	5	3	2	0	9	2	7	11
Bahrain	5	2	3	0	3	1	2	9
Iran	4	2	0	2	17	3	14	6
Hong Kong	5	1	2	2	3	5	-2	5
Cambodia	5	0	1	4	1	22	-21	1

Group D

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Uzbekistan	5	3	0	2	12	6	6	9
Singapore	5	2	1	2	7	10	-3	7
Yemen	5	1	2	2	6	11	-5	5
Palestine	6	1	1	4	3	10	-7	4

Group E

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Qatar	6	5	1	0	16	1	15	16
Oman	5	4	0	1	11	4	7	12
Afghanistan	5	1	1	3	2	11	-9	4
India	5	0	3	2	3	5	-2	3
Bangladesh	5	0	1	4	2	13	-11	1

Group F

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Japan	5	5	0	0	27	0	27	15
Tajikistan	6	3	1	2	9	8	1	10
Kyrgyz Republic	5	2	1	2	10	5	5	7
Myanmar	5	2	0	3	5	13	-8	6
Mongolia	7	1	0	6	2	27	-25	3

Group G

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Vietnam	5	3	2	0	5	1	4	11
Malaysia	5	3	0	2	8	6	2	9
Thailand	5	2	2	1	6	3	3	8
UAE	4	2	0	2	8	4	4	6
Indonesia	5	0	0	5	3	16	-13	0

Group H

Club	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Turkmenistan	5	3	0	2	8	5	3	9
Korea Republic	4	2	2	0	10	0	10	8
Lebanon	5	2	2	1	5	3	2	8
Korea DPR	5	2	2	1	4	3	1	8
Sri Lanka	5	0	0	5	0	16	-16	0

Above are eight groups of AFC in the World Cup qualifying stage. Accordingly, Syria, Australia, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Japan, Vietnam, and Turkmenistan are currently leading the groups they are in.

Summary about World Cup qualifying

This section below will provide you with the most general understanding of World Cup qualifying principles for those who are unfamiliar with them.

What is World Cup qualifying?

World Cup qualifying is the prior step before the final tournament which starts with the group stage. For entrants to be selected for the World Cup competition proper, they must engage in the World Cup qualification. Before the inter-confederation football teams gather in the biggest sports event, they will compete with their friends in the same continent zone.

The six major regions are the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (European Union). The primary goal of World Cup qualification is to reduce the number of teams competing in the tournament, from more than 200 national teams to 32 slots in the group stage.

World Cup trophy

How does World Cup qualifying work in the AFC region?

Basically, the Asian World Cup qualifying is a small round-robin tournament. There will be four rounds before we find out teams that will be awarded tickets to the final tournament.

First round: 12 teams ranked 35-46 will play under two-legged ties at their home and away venues, which is actually the opponent’s home ground. The top six teams that finished with the highest points will go to the second round.

Second round: 34 teams left (ranked 1-34) and six winners from the first round are eligible for this round. 40 teams will be divided into eight groups of five, and also play under the round-robin format. The top eight of these groups and the four runners-up from the best groups will be advanced for the next round. They are also qualified for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup finals.

Third round: 12 teams from the previous round are kept being divided into two groups of six, playing two-legged ties. The top two teams of each group (totally four) will qualify for the World Cup final tournament, while the third-ranked teams go to the fourth round.

Fourth round: Two third-placed teams from the third round will compete against each other to find out the winner who will take part in the inter-confederation playoffs.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_qualification

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(AFC)

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Written by: Frank Merino

Frank Merino is a writer for Betimate.com, providing non-stop analysis and opinions on all things football. Since 2018, I have started writing football analysis articles on the internet and predicting and recommending prestigious football bets for users around the world.