It seems Laos is now placed in pot 4. This could mean exclusion of Kuwait and withdrawal of Macau. Facebook page of Kyrgyz Football Federation has posted the pots.
Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has on Thursday confirmed the list of 24 teams to be included in the draw for the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers Final Round. The draw, which will place the teams into six groups of four, will take place on January 23, 2017, in Abu Dhabi. Kuwait, one of the third-placed teams from the Preliminary Joint Qualifiers Round 2, was suspended by FIFA on October 16, 2015. Since the deadline of January 11, 2017 for lifting the suspension has now passed, as decided by the AFC Competitions Committee, Kuwait are not eligible to participate in the competition. Guam, one of the best fourth-placed teams from the Preliminary Joint Qualifiers Round 2, has announced its withdrawal from the competition. In order to maintain 24 teams in the competition, the AFC Competitions Committee decided December 20, 2016 to invite the two highest-ranked teams of the AFC Solidarity Cup Malaysia 2016, champions Nepal and runners-up Macau, to replace Kuwait and Guam respectively. The full list of the teams participating in the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers Final Round can be found below. http://www.the-afc.com/asian-cup-20...f-afc-asian-cup-uae-2019-qualifiers-confirmed
it's official now. Pot 1 : Jordan, Oman, Philippines, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, DPR Korea Pot 2 : India, Palestine, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Turkmenistan Pot 3 : Maldives, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, Myanmar Pot 4 : Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, Macau BUT the AFC didn't specify the time of the draw and if it will be broadcasted live on youtube...
Macau FA confirm that they will play in AFC Asian Cup Final Round qualifiers. http://www.macaufa.com/index_news/2017/20170113.html
Nice to see organizational ineptitude got rewarded with four more spots at the World Cup. I think posters on this forum should replace the AFC ExCo... We'd all do a far better job running Asian Football.
The time of this stream starting is 12:00 Malaysia time on Monday, but it may be default time set by youtube. I think usually draws have started later.
http://the-afc.com/asian-cup-2019/t...al-round-of-afc-asian-cup-uae-2019-qualifiers For the live streaming of tomorrow’s AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers Final Round Draw and Logo Launch, please click here, starting at 4pm Gulf Standard Time.
Draw Result Group A: A1 Kyrgyz Republic A2 India A3 Myanmar A4 Macau Group B: B1 DPR Korea B2 Hong Kong B3 Lebanon B4 Malaysia Group C: C1 Jordan C2 Vietnam C3 Afghanistan C4 Cambodia Group D: D1 Oman D2 Palestine D3 Maldives D4 Bhutan Group E: E1 Bahrain E2 Turkmenistan E3 Chinese Taipei E4 Singapore Group F: F1 Philippines F2 Tajikistan F3 Yemen F4 Nepal Group B: toughest?
Hong Kong coach Kim Pan-Gon said explicitly he did not want to draw with North Korea and maybe next time he should keep it to himself. Lebanon and Malaysia are both interesting opponents for Hong Kong. Maldives and Bhutan are in the same group again as they were in Round 2! Good to see Macau get drawn with Kyrgyz Rep, India and Myanmar. I hope they get one or two good results.
Not so quick. Top two teams advance to Asian Cup finals. Even if we don't get the results we need against North Korea, we could still finish second. Anyway who is to say we can't beat them? Last Nov we lost only 0-1.
The Philippines has had tough luck in the past AFC draws, so it is about time that their luck finally changed for the better. Nevertheless, nothing is guaranteed in this type of competitions. If they don't prepare properly, they can still conceivably not make it. Yemen even won one of the WC qualifying matches against the Philippines.
India is the big winner here. Should not have been in Pot 2 to begin with and have been placed in a VERY manageable group. Two wins vs. Macau and 4 points in the four other games should take them through.
My picks: Group A: A1 Kyrgyz Republic A2 India A3 Myanmar A4 Macau Group B: B1 DPR Korea B2 Hong Kong B3 Lebanon B4 Malaysia Group C: C1 Jordan C2 Vietnam C3 Afghanistan C4 Cambodia Group D: D1 Oman D2 Palestine D3 Maldives D4 Bhutan Group E: E1 Bahrain E2 Turkmenistan E3 Chinese Taipei E4 Singapore Group F: F1 Philippines F2 Tajikistan F3 Yemen F4 Nepal
I don't think most these groups are going to be as straighforward as we expect. Many of these teams are decent at home and rubbish away. Group A: I was impressed by Kyrgyzstan in the previous round and expect India and Myanmar to fight for second spot. Group B: Hong Kong and Lebanon to battle it out for second place. Group C: The Afghan team are in a bit of disarray at the moment, but if they could sort themselves out, they could potentially spring a surprise and pip Vietnam to second spot. Group D: I honestly think Oman are in for a rude awakening. They don't travel well and Palestine, Maldives and Bhutan are tough places to play at. Maldives owe their fans after horrendous displays in the 2nd qualifying round. Group E: Both Bahrain and Turkmenistan are vulnerable on their travels, but it all depends on whether Singapore bothers to turn up, otherwise this group is clear cut. Group F: This could finally be the one where Philippines and Tajikistan make it, but Yemen could always give it a game and teams are bound to struggle in Nepal, who are desperate to make an impact with a pretty impressive young side.
Wow, group B. Will surely keep my eyes on it. Great chance for Kyrgyzstan and Philippines to qualify.
I wonder if Hong Kong, Lebanon and Malaysia will really travel to Pyongyang to play North Korea? To my mind Pyongyang hasn't hosted an international football match in recent (10-15) years. In the East Asia Cup, even though North Korea is a regular in the semi-final tournament, they have never hosted it. The host has always been Chinese Taipei or Hong Kong. I am really interested to see what will happen.
Only the teams like South Korea and Japan have problem to visit North Korea. In second round, all four teams in Group H traveled to Pyongyang to play their away matches.
Actually, they have been hosting international matches for as long as I could remember. You should check out their match against Japan. I think it was in 2011 and the atmosphere was downright crazy that day!