Good luck in the WC guys. I believe All Gulf States (except Saudi Arabia) have thousands of Iranian expatriates (or citizens from an Iranian descent), hence, I expect any match involving Iran in the WC in Qatar will be like a home match (unless you are drawn in the same group as Tunisia, a country which has some growing numbers of expats in Qatar lately).
AFC World Cup Qualifers 2026 predictions Round 1 Afghanistan over Mongolia Bangladesh over Maldives Singapore over Guam Yemen over Sri Lanka Myanmar over Macau Cambodia over Pakistan Chinese Taipei over Timor-Leste Indonesia over Brunei Hongkong over Bhutan Nepal over Laos Round 2 Group A 1. Qatar 2. Kuwait 3. India 4. Afghanistan Group B 1. Japan 2. Syria 3. North Korea 4. Myanmar Group C 1. South Korea 2. Thailand 3. China 4. Singapore Group D 1. Oman 2. Malaysia 3. Krygyzstan 4. Chinese Taipei Group E 1. Iran 2. Uzbekistan 3. Hongkong 4. Turkmenistan Group F 1. Vietnam 2. Iraq 3. Indonesia 4. Philippines Group G 1. Saudi Arabia 2. Jordan 3. Tajikistan 4. Cambodia Group H 1. Bahrain 2. UAE 3. Nepal 4. Yemen Group I 1. Australia 2. Lebanon 3. Palestine 4. Bangladesh My picks to be eliminated after round 3 Lebanon Malaysia Kuwait Syria Oman Thailand My picks to be eliminated after round 4 Vietnam Jordan My 8 Asian teams to qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup Japan Australia Iran South Korea Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan (debutants) Bahrain (debutants) UAE My round 5 match up Iraq over Qatar Iraq go on to play the intercontinental playoffs. But I don't have them coming through that. Good luck to all Asian teams!