FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
Uttiyo Sarkar
The 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers second round came to a close for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) teams in the second week of June. In the end, 18 AFC national teams were able to go past the second round qualifiers to keep their dreams of playing at the upcoming World Cup alive and well.
For India, a case of bad luck stopped them from getting into the third round. A gutting loss to Qatar in the final game in controversial circumstances stopped them from securing a top-two finish in the group. Instead, Qatar and Kuwait are the teams to have progressed from Group A of the second round qualifiers.
The Maroons, for one, are one of the few AFC teams to have remained unbeaten in the second round. They won five of their six games. Japan, Australia and Iraq did one better as they won all six of their matches to have an unbeaten second round qualifying campaign. Meanwhile, South Korea and Iran are two other teams who did not lose a single match in the second round.
Japan were extremely dominant in their group. They scored 24 goals and didn’t concede a single one in their six games, the most for any of the AFC teams in the second round qualifiers. Australia were the closest ones to them, having scored 22 goals and also not letting in any.
Kuwait are the lowest-ranked team in the latest FIFA rankings to have earned a place in the third round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Despite losing their first game of the second round against India, the Blue Wave came back strongly to accompany Qatar as the Group A teams to go into the next round of qualifiers.
With that being said, here we look at all the 18 AFC teams who have been able to earn a berth in the third round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
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