Sunday 08 / September / 2024
Muscat: With their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign coming to an end with a 2-0 away defeat to Iran on Tuesday, Oman will now be looking to continue their quest for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup berth.
Juan Ramon Lopez Caro-coached Omanis were among ‘the 27 teams that didn’t make the cut for the third round of qualifiers for Russia 2018 World Cup’.
According to news posted on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) website, the 27 teams learned their position on the qualification road for the next edition of Asia’s flagship tournament.
DPR Korea’s 3-2 loss to the Philippines and Jordan’s 5-1 hammering at the hands of Asian champions Australia saw the duo finish one point behind China in the rankings for the four best second-placed teams, with the 2004 AFC Asian Cup hosts ending Qatar’s 100 percent record with a 2-0 win in Xian to advance to the third round of World Cup qualifiers as well as sealing their place at UAE 2019.
The North Koreans and Jordan will take part in the 2019 Asian Cup final round qualifiers along with Oman and Lebanon, who finished second in their groups behind Iran and Korea Republic respectively. The quartet will be joined in the final round by all the third-place finishers in Round 2 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers as well as the top-four fourth-placed sides.
Meanwhile, the four lowest ranked fourth-placed teams will join those that finished last in their groups in the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 qualifiers playoff round.
The draw for the two-round playoffs will take place at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on April 7, five days before the draw for the final round of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian qualifiers takes place at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, also in the Malaysia capital.
AFC chief congratulates
Meanwhile, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has congratulated the 12 teams that secured their spots in the final round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup.
With the new qualifying format, the 12 teams are also the first teams to have booked their places for the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.
“I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to all 12 teams for edging closer to the world biggest sporting spectacle. All of them have shown great determination and tenacity and truly deserve their places amongst the continent’s best,” he said.
The AFC chief went on to note the progress of the developing nations.
“The new qualifying competition format has been designed to expose Asia’s developing football nations to greater, high-level competition. I am pleased to note the valiant efforts of our aspiring nations throughout this hard-fought campaign and I wish them the very best as they continue to compete for a place in the 2019 Asian Cup in Qatar.”
Teams in 2019 Asian Cup final round qualifiers: North Korea, Jordan, Oman, Lebanon, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Turkmenistan, Singapore, Vietnam, Kuwait, the Philippines, Guam, Myanmar, Bahrain and Afghanistan.
Teams in 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers playoff round: Tajikistan, Chinese Taipei, Maldives, Malaysia, Laos, India, Yemen, Timor Leste, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Bhutan.
