2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round

2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round

Tournament details
Dates	26 March 2017 – 27 March 2018
Teams	24 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	72
Goals scored	243 (3.38 per match)
Attendance	544,730 (7,566 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Khalid Al-Hajri (8 goals)
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The third round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification was played from 26 March 2017 to 27 March 2018.

A total of 24 teams (16 teams which advanced from the second round and eight teams which advanced from the play-off round) compete in the third round to compete for the final 12 slots in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.^[1][2] Since the hosts United Arab Emirates advanced to the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, the automatic slot for the hosts is no longer necessary.

The 24 teams were divided into six groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, where they were joined by the 12 teams which qualified directly from the second round.^[3]

Teams qualified from second round

Group	Runners-up (Worst 4)	Third place	Fourth place (Best 4)
A	—	Palestine	—
B	Jordan	Kyrgyzstan	—
C	—	Hong Kong	—
D	Oman	Turkmenistan	Guam[nb 1]
E	—	Singapore	Afghanistan
F	—	Vietnam	—
G	Lebanon	Kuwait[nb 2]	Myanmar
H	North Korea	Philippines	Bahrain

Notes

Teams qualified from play-off round

Round 1 winners  Cambodia  Yemen  Tajikistan  Malaysia  India

Round 2 winners  Maldives  Bhutan  Chinese Taipei

Teams qualified from Solidarity Cup

Due to the withdrawal of Guam and the suspension of Kuwait, the AFC invited both Nepal and Macau, the top two teams of the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup, to re-enter 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification as replacements in order to maintain 24 teams in the third round of the competition.^[10]

Finalists
Nepal (replaced Guam)
Macau (replaced Kuwait)

The draw for the third round was held on 23 January 2017, 16:00 GST (UTC+4), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.^[12] It was initially scheduled for 18 January 2017, but was delayed.^[13][9]

The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four.^[12] They were seeded using the January 2017 FIFA World Rankings (indicated in parentheses below).^[10][14][15]

The national teams which eventually qualified are presented in bold.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Jordan (107)  Oman (118)  Philippines (122)  Bahrain (123)  Kyrgyzstan (124)  North Korea (125)	India (129)  Palestine (131)  Tajikistan (132)  Vietnam (136)  Hong Kong (140)  Turkmenistan (143)	Maldives (145)  Lebanon (148)  Yemen (149)  Afghanistan (151)  Chinese Taipei (157)  Myanmar (159)	Malaysia (161)  Singapore (165)  Cambodia (172)    Nepal (175)  Bhutan (176)  Macau (184)

The schedule of each matchday was as follows.^[15][16][17]

Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	28 March 2017	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Matchday 2	13 June 2017	4 v 3, 2 v 1
Matchday 3	5 September 2017	4 v 2, 1 v 3
Matchday 4	10 October 2017	2 v 4, 3 v 1
Matchday 5	14 November 2017	4 v 1, 2 v 3
Matchday 6	27 March 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 9.3):^[3]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying criteria 1 to 4, a subset of teams were still tied, criteria 1 to 4 were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
9. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
10. Drawing of lots.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	India	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13[a]	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	1–0	2–2	4–1
2	Kyrgyzstan	6	4	1	1	14	8	+6	13[a]			2–1	—	5–1	1–0
3	Myanmar	6	2	2	2	10	10	0	8			0–1	2–2	—	1–0
4	Macau	6	0	0	6	4	16	−12	0			0–2	3–4	0–4	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Lebanon	6	5	1	0	14	4	+10	16	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	5–0	2–0	2–1
2	North Korea	6	3	2	1	13	10	+3	11			2–2	—	2–0	4–1
3	Hong Kong	6	1	2	3	4	7	−3	5			0–1	1–1	—	2–0
4	Malaysia	6	0	1	5	5	15	−10	1			1–2	1–4	1–1	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan	6	3	3	0	16	5	+11	12	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	1–1	4–1	7–0
2	Vietnam	6	2	4	0	9	3	+6	10			0–0	—	0–0	5–0
3	Afghanistan	6	1	3	2	7	10	−3	6			3–3	1–1	—	2–1
4	Cambodia	6	1	0	5	3	17	−14	3			0–1	1–2	1–0	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Oman	6	5	0	1	28	5	+23	15[a]	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	1–0	5–0	14–0
2	Palestine	6	5	0	1	25	3	+22	15[a]			2–1	—	8–1	10–0
3	Maldives	6	2	0	4	11	19	−8	6			1–3	0–3	—	7–0
4	Bhutan	6	0	0	6	2	39	−37	0			2–4	0–2	0–2	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bahrain	6	4	1	1	15	3	+12	13	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	4–0	5–0	0–0
2	Turkmenistan	6	3	1	2	9	10	−1	10			1–2	—	2–1	2–1
3	Chinese Taipei	6	3	0	3	7	12	−5	9			2–1	1–3	—	1–0
4	Singapore	6	0	2	4	3	9	−6	2			0–3	1–1	1–2	—

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Philippines	6	3	3	0	13	8	+5	12	2019 AFC Asian Cup		—	2–2	2–1	4–1
2	Yemen	6	2	4	0	7	5	+2	10			1–1	—	2–1	2–1
3	Tajikistan	6	2	1	3	10	9	+1	7			3–4	0–0	—	3–0
4	Nepal	6	0	2	4	3	11	−8	2			0–0	0–0	1–2	—

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There were 243 goals scored in 72 matches, for an average of 3.38 goals per match.

8 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal