Indonesia’s dream of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup is not over yet. Despite heavy defeats to Australia and Japan, coach Kluivert’s team still qualified for the playoffs thanks to narrow wins over China and Bahrain.
The playoff round is the fourth qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup in Asia, with six teams participating. The teams are drawn into two groups and will compete in a round-robin format from October 8 to October 14. Only the top team in each group will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup.
The two runners-up will play a home-and-away playoff in November. The overall winner will advance to the intercontinental playoff, competing for the final spot at the 2026 World Cup.
The group stage draw has just ended, putting the only remaining representative of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, in an extremely difficult group with Saudi Arabia and Iraq. These are all familiar opponents to Indonesia.
In the second qualifying round, Indonesia lost both matches against Iraq. They lost 1-5 away before losing 1-3 at home. Despite a complete “transformation” with the current squad of naturalized stars, Indonesia is still considered inferior to Iraq.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was in the same group as Indonesia in the third qualifying round. The archipelago nation drew 1-1 away and won 2-0 at home. However, these results came at a time when Saudi Arabia was in a crisis of form. In addition to the problem of squad strength, Indonesia also faced a big disadvantage when having to play concentrated matches on Saudi Arabia's field.
In the remaining group, Qatar will host and face two regional representatives, UAE and Oman.
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Source: https://tienphong.vn/tuyen-indonesia-roi-vao-bang-dau-cuc-kho-o-vong-playoff-world-cup-2026-post1761084.tpo
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