Vietnam meet Thailand, UAE in World Cup 2022 qualifying

The draw took place at the headquarters of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the afternoon of July 17, featuring 40 Asian teams pooled in five pots based on their FIFA World Ranking (issued on June 14, 2019).

As the no. 96 in the world and no. 15 in Asia, Vietnam were placed in Pot 2, alongside Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic and Jordan, which also means the Golden Dragons would avoid clashes with these teams.

In addition the UAE and Thailand, Park Hang-seo’s troops are joined by two other Southeast Asian representatives, Malaysia and Indonesia, in the second round of the 2022 World Cup AFC qualifiers.

Group A features China, Syria, the Philippines, Maldives and Guam, while Group B includes Australia, Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Kuwait and Nepal. Group C is made up of Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Hong Kong (China) and Cambodia. Saudi Arabia were drawn against Uzbekistan, Palestine, Yemen and Singapore in Group D.

The draw results of the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. (Photo: FIFA)

Asian champions Qatar meet Bangladesh, Oman, India and Afghanistan in Group E, while Group F consists of Japan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Myanmar and Mongolia. Group H is made up of the Republic of Korea, Lebanon, the Korea DPR, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka.

The second round of the 2022 World Cup AFC qualifiers is scheduled to begin on September 5, 2019 and conclude on June 9, 2020. The matches in the group will be held on home-and-away basis with each teams playing eight games in total. The eight group winners and four best runners-up will qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup to be held in China, as well as the third and final round 2022 World Cup Qualifiers.

These 12 teams will then be drawn into two groups of six and compete in a double round-robin format, to determine the four best teams who will secure a spot at the global showpiece in 2022. Meanwhile, the two third-placed teams will meet in a play-off on a home and away two-legged affair, with the winning side going through to an intercontinental play-off in seek of a World Cup place.

The next best 24 teams from the second stage of the joint-qualifiers will take part in a separate competition, which features six groups of four, for the 12 remaining slots in the 24-team 2023 Asian Cup, including one guaranteed spot for hosts China.