Who will India face in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers?
After yesterday's 1-1 draw against Afghanistan in Doha, India confirmed their place in the third qualifying round of the AFC Asian Cup. The third round of Asian Cup qualifiers will start in the first week of February 2022. Igor Stimac and his men have more than six months to prepare for the next round, and they must be looking to play some competitive friendly matches that give them the edge over the teams they would be facing. The seven group winners (and Qatar) and the best five group runners up qualified for the next round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and confirmed their qualification in the AFC Asian Cup 2023. Thus, twenty-two teams qualified for the third round, and two more teams will join them through two two-legged playoffs after the second round. Here are the 22 sides who will be participating in #ACQ2023     Meanwhile, 4 teams will compete in a play-off to secure the 2 remaining slots for the 24-team tournament! #AsianQualifiers pic.twitter.com/qc7TiHzfLL  #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) June 16, 2021      Here are the teams that have qualified for the third round. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Singapore, Maldives, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Sri-Lanka, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and India. The twenty-four teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams and will play round-robin matches home and away to qualify for the remaining 12 slots at the AFC Asian Cup 2023 in China. The third round of qualification is tentatively supposed to start from the first week of February 2022.