2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification

The 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification saw various countries take part to determine 10 spots to the final tournament in Qatar under the new qualification system set by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Six other teams also qualified for the finals, even though they did not take part in the qualifiers:

• The host nation: Qatar;
• The top three finishers in the 2007 tournament: Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic;
• The winner of the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup: India;
• The winner of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup: Korea DPR.

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1
Qatar	*Hosts !Hosts	03 !29 July 2007	07 !7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Iraq	071 !2007 AFC Asian Cup winner	00 !25 July 2007	06 !6 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Saudi Arabia	072 !2007 AFC Asian Cup runner-up	01 !25 July 2007	07 !7 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
South Korea	073 !2007 AFC Asian Cup third place	02 !28 July 2007	11 !11 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
India	081 !2008 AFC Challenge Cup winner	04 !13 August 2008	02 !2 (1964, 1984)
Uzbekistan	C2 !Group C runner-up	05 !18 November 2009	04 !4 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Syria	D1 !Group D winner	06 !18 November 2009	04 !4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Iran	E1 !Group E winner	07 !6 January 2010	11 !11 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
China PR	D2 !Group D runner-up	08 !6 January 2010	09 !9 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Japan	A1 !Group A winner	09 !6 January 2010	06 !6 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
Bahrain	A2 !Group A runner-up	10 !6 January 2010	03 !3 (1988, 2004, 2007)
United Arab Emirates	C1 !Group C winner	11 !6 January 2010	07 !7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007)
North Korea	10 !2010 AFC Challenge Cup winner	12 !27 February 2010	02 !2 (1980, 1992)
Australia	B1 !Group B winner	13 !3 March 2010	01 !1 (2007)
Kuwait	B2 !Group B runner-up	14 !3 March 2010	08 !8 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004)
Jordan	E2 !Group E runner-up	15 !3 March 2010	01 !1 (2004)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

Seedings

On 6 December 2007 the Asian Football Confederation announced the seeding for the preliminary round of the 2011 tournament:^[1]

Automatic Qualifiers	Other Teams
Iraq  Saudi Arabia  South Korea	Japan  Australia  Iran  Uzbekistan  Vietnam  China PR  Thailand  Indonesia  United Arab Emirates  Bahrain  Oman  Malaysia  Jordan  Syria  Hong Kong  Yemen  Kuwait  Singapore  India**  Lebanon  North Korea*  Myanmar*  Maldives***  Turkmenistan*

• Teams marked '*' withdrew prior to the draw. All of them participated in the 2008 and 2010 AFC Challenge Cup, and therefore had a chance to qualify via those two tournaments.
• India (marked '**') were drawn into Group C of the qualifiers, but withdrew from the qualifiers following their victory in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup which automatically qualified them for the final tournament.
• Maldives (marked '***') were the only other team that entered the Asian Cup qualifiers who could also qualify via the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup, but they were eliminated from the Asian Cup qualifiers before the group stage.
• The following teams did not enter main qualification, but could qualify via the AFC Challenge Cups if they chose to enter:

Preliminary round

The preliminary round reduced the number of non-automatic qualifiers to 20. Following the withdrawals of Korea DPR, Myanmar and Turkmenistan, only two teams were involved. The two lowest ranked AFC teams, Lebanon and Maldives, played home-and-away matches in April 2008. The away goals rule would be applied, and extra time and penalty shootout would be used to decide the winner if necessary. The winner of the preliminary round advanced to the qualifying round, where it was joined by the 19 teams seeded 4th to 22nd.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Lebanon	6–1	Maldives	4–0	2–1

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Lebanon won 6–1 on aggregate and advanced to the group stage.

Qualifying round

The 20 teams were divided into five groups of four. Teams played each other home and way in a round-robin format. The top two in each group advanced to the 2011 tournament where they were joined by the other qualifiers — Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India and North Korea.

Seedings

The following teams were drawn at this round:

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Japan  Australia  Iran  Uzbekistan  Vietnam	China PR  Thailand  Indonesia  United Arab Emirates  Bahrain	Oman  Jordan  Syria  Malaysia  Hong Kong	Yemen  Kuwait  Singapore  India  Lebanon

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:^[2]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goal difference in all the group matches;
5. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
6. Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
7. Drawing of lots.

Group A

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Japan 6 5 0 1 17 4 +13 15  Bahrain 6 4 0 2 12 6 +6 12  Yemen 6 2 1 3 7 9 −2 7  Hong Kong 6 0 1 5 1 18 −17 1

Bahrain  – 4–0 1–0 4–0 Hong Kong  1–3 – 0–4 0–0 Japan  2–0 6–0 – 2–1 Yemen  3–0 1–0 2–3 –

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Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Australia 6 3 2 1 6 4 +2 11  Kuwait 6 2 3 1 6 5 +1 9  Oman 6 2 2 2 4 4 0 8  Indonesia 6 0 3 3 3 6 −3 3

Australia  – 1–0 0–1 1–0 Indonesia  0–0 – 1–1 1–2 Kuwait  2–2 2–1 – 0–1 Oman  1–2 0–0 0–0 –

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Group C

Following their victory in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, India was given a bye to the final tournament and removed from this group prior to the first match. They were not replaced.^[3]

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  United Arab Emirates 4 3 0 1 7 1 +6 9  Uzbekistan 4 3 0 1 7 3 +4 9  Malaysia 4 0 0 4 2 12 −10 0

Malaysia  – 0–5 1–3 United Arab Emirates  1–0 – 0–1 Uzbekistan  3–1 0–1 –

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Group D

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Syria 6 4 2 0 10 2 +8 14  China PR 6 4 1 1 13 5 +8 13  Vietnam 6 1 2 3 6 11 −5 5  Lebanon 6 0 1 5 2 13 −11 1

China PR  – 1–0 0–0 6–1 Lebanon  0–2 – 0–2 1–1 Syria  3–2 4–0 – 0–0 Vietnam  1–2 3–1 0–1 –

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Group E

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Iran 6 4 1 1 11 2 +9 13  Jordan 6 2 2 2 4 4 0 8  Thailand 6 1 3 2 3 3 0 6  Singapore 6 2 0 4 6 15 −9 6

Iran  – 1–0 6–0 1–0 Jordan  1–0 – 2–1 0–0 Singapore  1–3 2–1 – 1–3 Thailand  0–0 0–0 0–1 –

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Goalscorers

6 goals

• Shinji Okazaki

5 goals

• Ismael Abdullatif

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goal

• Aref Thabit Al-Dali (1) (playing against Bahrain)

References

External links

• Schedule & Results