March 27 – The Road to 2026 Asian Qualifiers are going down to the wire with two match days left in June to qualify four more teams for the World Cup next year.
Round 3 of AFC qualifying has seen 18 teams in three groups of six with each nation playing each other home away over the 10 match schedule. The top two teams in each group qualify direct to World Cup 2026 and after eight rounds of matches, Japan and Iran have secured their place.
Behind them the qualification battle is fierce.
In Group A Iran lead Uzbekistan by three points who are in turn four points ahead of the UAE. The UAE could still qualify but will have to beat Uzbekistan in their next game on June 5 and then hope that the Uzbeks drop points in their final game against Qatar. UAE will need to beat the Kyrgyz Republic.
They will attempt to do so without manager Paulo Bento who, along with his coaching staff were dismissed after beating North Korea in their last qualifier 2-1.
Asian champions Qatar are placed third in group A but are already out of automatic qualification and will have to hod on to fourth place in the group to qualify for the fourth qualification round where the third and fourth teams in the groups with form two further groups of three and play-off for two more automatic places at World Cup 2026.
Group B is the tightest of the groups with four teams still in contention. South Korea top the group are three points ahead of Jordan who are a point ahead of Iraq. Iraq play South Korea next and a home win would put them a point behind the Koreans with a game to play.
Second place Jordan play fourth placed Oman who are six points of the top and must win to stay in contention.
Wins for South Korea and Jordan would see them through to the finals, but if Iraq beat South Korea then their final game against Jordan will be a winner-takes-all battle.
In Group C Japan are runaway qualifiers, but behind them Australia are three points ahead of Saudi Arabia.
Australia face Japan next while Saudi face Bahrain. If Japan beat Aussie and Saudi win the final ties will see the Saudis host Australia with only a win guaranteeing 2026 qualification.
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