Soccer Asian Cup 2011 / Qualification

This article covers qualifying for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar .

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For the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar has Asian Football Confederation (AFC) introduced a new qualifying format. The host Qatar and the top three of the 2007 Asian soccer championships , Iraq , Saudi Arabia and South Korea are directly qualified for the 2011 Asian Football Championship .

India and North Korea also qualified as winners of the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 and 2010 for the Asian Cup.

The remaining ten participants are determined by the normal qualification, in which the national teams in places 4–22, the AFC rankings, as well as the winner from the game in places 23 and 24, were drawn in 5 groups of 4 teams each. The two best in each group will qualify for the 2011 Asian Football Championship in Qatar .

Ranking list

On December 6, 2007, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced the following ranking for qualifying for the 2011 Asian Football Championship :

1.  Iraq *
2.  Saudi Arabia *
3.  South Korea *
4.  Japan
5.  Australia
6.  Iran
7.  Uzbekistan
8.  Vietnam
9.  People's Republic of China
10.  Thailand
11.  Indonesia
12.  United Arab Emirates
13.  Bahrain
14.  Oman
15.  Malaysia
16.  Jordan
17.  Syria
18.  Hong Kong
19.  Yemen
20.  Kuwait
21.  Singapore
22.  India
23.  Lebanon
24.  Maldives

* directly qualified

Pre-qualification

Lebanon and the Maldives played the pre-qualification as 23rd and 24th respectively in the rankings, which Lebanon won after two wins with a total of 6-1 goals.

April 9, 2008,
Lebanon	-	Maldives	4: 0 (4: 0)
April 23, 2008
Maldives	-	Lebanon	1: 2 (1: 1)

Main qualification

For the main qualification, the teams in places 4 - 22 and the winner of the pre-qualification were drawn in 5 groups of 4 teams each. The main qualification was played between January 2009 and March 2010.

The draw for the main qualification took place on July 3, 2008, and the following pots were drawn:

• Lottery pot 1: Japan, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan and Vietnam
• Lottery pot 2: China, Thailand, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain
• Lottery pot 3: Oman, Malaysia, Jordan, Syria and Hong Kong
• Lottery pot 4: Yemen, Kuwait, Singapore, India and Lebanon

groups

The placement of the teams in the qualification groups is in the following order:

1. Number of points (win: 3 points; draw: 1 point; defeat: 0 points)
2. in the event of a tie, points from the direct comparisons of the teams with the same points
3. Goal difference from direct comparisons of teams with equal points
4. if the goal difference is the same, the number of goals scored in the direct comparisons (the away goal rule does not apply here)
5. with the same number of goals, the better goal difference in all six group matches
6. Penalty shoot-out (only possible if the two teams concerned meet in the last game)
7. the lot.

Group A

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Japan	6th	5	0	1	17: 04	15th
2	Bahrain	6th	4th	0	2	12: 06	12
3	Yemen	6th	2	1	3	7: 09	7th
4th	Hong Kong	6th	0	1	5	1: 018	1

Game results

January 20, 2009	Kumamoto	Japan	-	Yemen	2: 1 (1: 0)
01/21/2009	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	-	Bahrain	1: 3 (0: 2)
28/01/2009	Sanaa	Yemen	-	Hong Kong	1: 0 (0: 0)
03/22/2009	ar-Rifa	Bahrain	-	Japan	1: 0 (1: 0)
08/10/2009	Shizuoka	Japan	-	Hong Kong	6: 0 (2: 0)
11/18/2009	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	-	Japan	0: 4 (0: 1)

11/18/2009	ar-Rifa	Bahrain	-	Yemen	4: 0 (2: 0)
01/06/2010	Sanaa	Yemen	-	Japan	2: 3 (2: 1)
01/06/2010	ar-Rifa	Bahrain	-	Hong Kong	4: 0 (3: 0)
01/20/2010	Sanaa	Yemen	-	Bahrain	3: 0 (2: 0)
03/03/2010	Toyota	Japan	-	Bahrain	2: 0 (1: 0)
03/03/2010	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	-	Yemen	0-0

Group B

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Australia	6th	3	2	1	6: 04	11
2	Kuwait	6th	2	3	1	6: 05	9
3	Oman	6th	2	2	2	4: 04	8th
4th	Indonesia	6th	0	3	3	3: 06	3

Game results

01/19/2009	Muscat	Oman	-	Indonesia	0-0
28/01/2009	Jakarta	Indonesia	-	Australia	0-0
28/01/2009	Kuwait City	Kuwait	-	Oman	0: 1 (0: 0)
05.03.2009	Canberra	Australia	-	Kuwait	0: 1 (0: 1)
October 14, 2009	Melbourne	Australia	-	Oman	1: 0 (0: 0)
11/14/2009	Muscat	Oman	-	Australia	1: 2 (1: 1)

11/14/2009	Kuwait City	Kuwait	-	Indonesia	2: 1 (0: 1)
11/18/2009	Jakarta	Indonesia	-	Kuwait	1: 1 (1: 0)
01/06/2010	Jakarta	Indonesia	-	Oman	1: 2 (1: 1)
01/06/2010	Kuwait City	Kuwait	-	Australia	2: 2 (2: 2)
03/03/2010	Brisbane	Australia	-	Indonesia	1: 0 (1: 0)
03/03/2010	Maksat	Oman	-	Kuwait	0-0

Group C

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	UAE	4th	3	0	1	7: 01	9
2	Uzbekistan	4th	3	0	1	7: 03	9
3	Malaysia	4th	0	0	4th	2: 012	0

Game results

01/21/2009	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	-	UAE	0: 5 (0: 2)
28/01/2009	Sharjah	UAE	-	Uzbekistan	0: 1 (0: 1)
11/14/2009	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	-	Malaysia	3: 1 (0: 0)

11/18/2009	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	-	Uzbekistan	1: 3 (0: 1)
01/06/2010	Dubai	UAE	-	Malaysia	1: 0 (0: 0)
03/03/2010	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	-	UAE	0: 1 (0: 0)

Note: India was originally supposed to play in this group too, after the team had already qualified by winning the AFC Challenge Cup , they did not have to play any more qualifying games.

Group D

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Syria	6th	4th	2	0	10: 02	14th
2	People's Republic of China	6th	4th	1	1	13: 05	13
3	Vietnam	6th	1	2	3	6: 011	5
4th	Lebanon	6th	0	1	5	2: 013	1

Game results

01/14/2009	Hanoi	Vietnam	-	Lebanon	3: 1 (2: 0)
01/14/2009	Aleppo	Syria	-	China	3: 2 (3: 0)
01/21/2009	Hangzhou	China	-	Vietnam	6: 1 (4: 1)
28/01/2009	Sidon	Lebanon	-	Syria	0: 2 (0: 1)
11/14/2009	Hanoi	Vietnam	-	Syria	0: 1 (0: 0)
11/14/2009	Beirut	Lebanon	-	China	0: 2 (0: 1)

11/18/2009	Aleppo	Syria	-	Vietnam	0-0
11/22/2009	Hangzhou	China	-	Lebanon	1: 0 (1: 0)
01/06/2010	Hangzhou	China	-	Syria	0-0
01/06/2010	Sidon	Lebanon	-	Vietnam	1: 1 (1: 1)
01/17/2010	Hanoi	Vietnam	-	China	1: 2 (0: 2)
03/03/2010	Damascus	Syria	-	Lebanon	4: 0 (2: 0)

Group E

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Iran	6th	4th	1	1	11: 02	13
2	Jordan	6th	2	2	2	4: 04	8th
3	Thailand	6th	1	3	2	3: 03	6th
4th	Singapore	6th	2	0	4th	6: 015	6th

Game results

01/14/2009	Tehran	Iran	-	Singapore	6: 0 (1: 0)
01/14/2009	Amman	Jordan	-	Thailand	0-0
28/01/2009	Singapore	Singapore	-	Jordan	2: 1 (1: 1)
28/01/2009	Bangkok	Thailand	-	Iran	0-0
11/14/2009	Singapore	Singapore	-	Thailand	1: 3 (0: 1)
11/14/2009	Tehran	Iran	-	Jordan	1: 0 (0: 0)

11/18/2009	Bangkok	Thailand	-	Singapore	0: 1 (0: 1)
11/22/2009	Amman	Jordan	-	Iran	1: 0 (0: 0)
01/06/2010	Singapore	Singapore	-	Iran	1: 3 (1: 2)
01/06/2010	Bangkok	Thailand	-	Jordan	0-0
03/03/2010	Tehran	Iran	-	Thailand	1: 0 (0: 0)
03/03/2010	Amman	Jordan	-	Singapore	2: 1 (1: 0)

Goal scorers

rank	player	Gates
1	Shinji Okazaki	6th
2	Ismael Abdullatif	5
3	Gao Lin	3
	Sōta Hirayama
	Noh Alam Shah

Web links

• Qualifying rounds and reports on the-afc.com