Australia to face Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Kuwait, and Nepal in combined qualifiers

Australia will play Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Kuwait and Nepal in the first phase of their qualification journey to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. 

The official draw for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™ – Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2 was held at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday evening, and involved Socceroos great Tim Cahill as the draw’s facilitator. 

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Australia will play eight matches - four at home & four away - between September 2019 and June 2020, and will need to finish as one of the eight group winners or four best runners-up to advance directly to the AFC Asian Cup 2023™ Finals as well as the next round of Asian qualifying for Qatar 2022. 

Following the draw Socceroos Head Coach Graham Arnold welcomed Australia’s path – one which will see his squad travel to a diverse set of nations across the vast Asian confederation. 

“We are happy with our draw,” Arnold said. “My first game in charge was in Kuwait City, and we won 4-0, so we have been there and experienced Kuwait as a group.”

“There are two teams that we have drawn (Kuwait and Jordan) that we have experience against and two teams that we are not as familiar with. But we will do our due diligence and ensure that we take every game as it comes and respect each match.” 

“We have worked with 80 players across the Socceroos and Olyroos over the past year, so I believe with the depth that we have we are well positioned to deal with the qualifiers.” 

Groups – FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™ – Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2
 

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

China

Australia

IR Iran

Saudi Arabia

Bangladesh

Japan

United Arab Emirates

Korea Republic

Syria

Jordan

Iraq

Uzbekistan

Oman

Kyrgyz Republic

Vietnam

Lebanon

Philippines

Chinese Taipei

Bahrain

Palestine

India

Tajikistan

Thailand

Korea DPR

Maldives

Kuwait

Hong Kong

Yemen

Afghanistan

Myanmar

Malaysia

Turkmenistan

Guam

Nepal

Cambodia

Singapore

Qatar

Mongolia

Indonesia

Sri Lanka


Match Schedule – FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and AFC Asian Cup China 2023™ – Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2


Kuwait v Australia
Date: Tuesday, 10 September 2019

Australia v Nepal
Date: Thursday, 10 October 2019

Chinese Taipei v Australia
Date: Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Jordan v Australia
Date: Thursday, 14 November 2019

Australia v Kuwait
Date: Thursday, 26 March 2020

Nepal v Australia
Date: Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Australia v Chinese Taipei
Date: Thursday, 4 June 2020

Australia v Jordan
Date: Tuesday, 9 June 2020
 

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