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The Indian football team is all set to play in the third round of AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers in June next year at a centralized venue. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recently announced changes in dates and format considering the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The AFC, in an official media release, said that:
“The AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers Final Round will be converted from the conventional home and away format to single round robin ties to be played in centralized venues.”
Bidding process for the hosting of the groups will be opened soon. The Confederation will consider factors such as minimum travel and quarantine restrictions, flight connections, safety from the virus, and mandatory COVID-19 tests while selecting the host nation.
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The three matchdays will be on June 8, 11 and 14. This format is different from the previous editions, where the four countries in a group played each other twice on a home and away basis.
The draw for the Qualifiers will be conducted next year and the pots will be divided according to the rankings of countries during the time of draw. As of October 2021, India would have been in Pot 1 of the draw, which would have avoided their ties against heavyweight countries. India will now have to maintain their ranking or else they will be relegated to Pot 2 of the draw.
India finished third out of five countries in their group for the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers. The Blue Tigers finished below Qatar and Oman, giving them a direct ticket to the final round of the Asian Cup Qualifiers. Afghanistan and Bangladesh finished below India in the group.
India will be looking to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 to be held in China and make consecutive appearances in the continental showdown. Sunil Chhetri and his men defeated Thailand 4-1 in the Asian Cup 2019 and were just minutes away from reaching Round of 16 but lost against Bahrain in injury time.
If India manage to qualify this time too, they will be looking to better their previous outing and reach the knockout stage.
