Announcing the seeding groups in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia

Accordingly, the AFC has divided the seed groups based on the rankings of the national teams on the recently updated FIFA rankings. By maintaining the 95th position on the FIFA rankings and rising to 15th in Asia, the Vietnamese team is placed in the second seed group in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

This helps coach Troussier and his team avoid strong opponents in the same seed group: Uzbekistan, China, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan and India.

Previously, in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Vietnamese team was also placed in group 2 and then entered the final qualifying round.

Meanwhile, according to the AFC announcement, group 3 seeds include Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Lebanon, Tajikistan, North Korea, Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Hong Kong.

Notably, the Indonesian team has to play in the first qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup with 6 other teams in Southeast Asia including Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor and Brunei.

According to the AFC announcement, the draw for the first and second qualifying rounds of the 2026 World Cup will take place on July 27. The first qualifying round matches will take place on October 12 and 17.

In the 2026 World Cup, Asia will have 8.5 places to participate. Of which, the top two teams in each group in the second qualifying round will qualify (a total of 18 teams). In the third qualifying round, these teams will be divided into three groups. The top two teams in each group will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup.

The third and fourth placed teams in each group will enter the fourth qualifying round. The group winners in this round will automatically qualify. The two second placed teams will play a play-off to determine which team will advance to the inter-region play-off.

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