Play-off draw concluded

So far the Asian World Cup qualifying matches and the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers were jointly route to the AFC Asian Cup which will be held in United Arab Emirates in 2019. But from now on, each goes on separate ways. The World Cup qualifying phase will continue with its third round and at least gave us the 12 teams who are going to participate in the Asian Championships. However, three more qualifying rounds will be needed to find out the remaining 12 teams entering the major Asian tournament.
Yesterday the first play-off draw, out of two, was being made. The lowest ranking teams from Asia, from twenty-ninth to thirty-eighth position consist of this first play-off, which brought up some deja-vu ties from just finished Asian World Cup qualifying second round, group matches. Malaysia has been paired with Timor-Leste, with the Malaysians winning 1:0 at Timor-Leste after drawing 1:1 at home in the opening first leg. Both sides occupied last two places in group A. Another bottom clash group B match will happen again with Tajikistan an Bangladesh. Tajikistan drew 1:1 away before thrashing Bangladesh side 5:0 in Dushanbe in the reverse leg. The schedule of the first play-off games is as follows:

1. Chinese Taipei - Cambodia.

2. Maldives - Yemen.

3. Tajikistan - Bangladesh.

4. Malaysia - Timor-Leste.

5. Laos - India.

First leg games will be played from 02 June while reverse matches will take place 07 June.

The losing sides will have another chance to prove themselves in the second play-off round. Made up of just 3 pairs, already in it awaits Bhutan who is the world's lowest rank side in Asia - takes (last) thirty-ninth place.

Losing team 2 - Losing team 5.

Losing team 3 - Bhutan.

Losing team 4 - Losing team 1.

Sixth September will be the first leg and second leg will be played 11 October.

Five winners from the first plus three winners from the second play-off games, together with 16 (mainly) fourth placed Asian World Cup qualifying teams, are going to take part in the third and final round. Over here six groups will be formed with four teams each. 

- Afghanistan, Bahrain, Guam, Hong Kong, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Myanmar, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, Philippines, Singapore, Turkmenistan and Vietnam already awaits the winners. Kuwait's participation is currently uncertain because of the suspension by FIFA. This round will last exactly one year: from 28 March 2017 until 27 March 2018.