Tomorrow, February 24, the draw for the qualifying tournament of the Asian Cup-2023 will take place at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, following which the national team of Turkmenistan will recognize its rivals. The event starts at 12:00 Ashgabat time. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the official AFC YouTube channel.
During the draw, the national team of Turkmenistan, which ranks 134th in the FIFA ranking, ended up in the second pot and will definitely not play in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifying tournament in the same group with Thailand, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Kuwait and Hong Kong.
Based on the results of the draw, six groups of four teams will be formed. The group round matches of the 2023 Asian Cup qualifying tournament will be held in a centralized format in one round on June 8, 11 and 14. The Asian Football Confederation has approved 6 host countries - India, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.
11 teams will advance to the finals of the Asian Cup 2023 - 6 group winners, as well as 5 teams that took second places with the best results.
It should be noted, that the teams of Iran, the Republic of Korea, the UAE, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia, Oman, Vietnam, China and Qatar have already secured a place in the finals of the 2023 Asian Cup.
The Asian Cup kicks off in China on June 16, 2023. Tournament matches will be hosted by 10 cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xian, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen and Suzhou.
The composition of the pots before the draw for the qualifying round of the Asian Cup-2023:
Host country: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia
Basket 1: Bahrain, Jordan, Palestine,
Basket 2: Thailand, Tajikistan, Philippines, Turkmenistan, Hong Kong
Basket 3: Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, Maldives, Indonesia
Basket 4: Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka