Back-to-back Asian champions Qatar had no problems advancing from Group A, winning five and drawing the other of their six matches, and securing progression with two games to spare.

 

The Maroons began with a bang as Almoez Ali netted four goals in an 8-1 victory over Afghanistan before a pair of 3-0 wins over Kuwait and India saw Marquez Lopez’s side flying high at the midway stage.

 

An Ali double in the return meeting with Kuwait took his tally to seven and secured his team’s passage to Round 3 before they wrapped up their campaign with a goalless draw against Afghanistan and a come-from-behind victory over India. 

Having qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1982, Kuwait have not come close to returning since, but with up to nine teams advancing from the current campaign, the 1980 Asian champions will feel they are in with a chance this time round.

Their passage was far from smooth as a 4-0 win over Afghanistan sandwiched between a home loss to India and an away defeat to Qatar left them with plenty to do at the midway stage. While they narrowly lost at home to the Qataris, a 0-0 draw in India on Matchday Five – when defeat would have seen them eliminated – restored hope ahead of the final round of fixtures.

And with India succumbing to a late defeat to Qatar in the simultaneous kick-off, Eid Al Rashidi’s goal with a little under 10 minutes remaining against Afghanistan in Kuwait City sealed a 1-0 victory and a place in the next round. 

The Samurai Blue have been ever-presents at the FIFA World Cup since their debut appearance in 1998 and have reached the knockout stages in three of the last four editions, with the record four-time Asian champions notably defeating both Germany and Spain at Qatar 2022.

It has been a flawless qualifying campaign for Hajime Moriyasu’s side so far, scoring 24 goals and conceding none in their six Group B matches. Japan began with a 5-0 win over Myanmar with Ayase Ueda bagging a hat-trick before the Feyenoord forward scored a brace in another 5-0 victory, this time against Syria.

Consecutive wins over DPR Korea with the away match being a default 3-0 victory by forfeit set them up nicely for the final matches where they yet again put five goals each past Myanmar and Syria to clearly signal their intent to the rest of Asia’s powerhouses.

DPR Korea were pioneers of Asian football when they became the first team from the continent to reach the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup in 1966, after stunning Italy in the group stage. Since then, the 2010 edition has been their only other appearance as they aim to return amongst the world’s elite again.

After a long hiatus, the team returned to qualification action in November when only an Omar Al Somah penalty was the difference against Syria. The East Asians regrouped to bounce back in their next fixture as they beat Myanmar 6-1 in Yangon powered by Jong Il-gwan’s hat-trick.

Consecutive losses to Japan left them in a perilous position before Jong Il-gwan’s crucial 92nd-minute winner against Syria brought their campaign right back on track. DPR Korea closed out with a 4-1 victory in Vientiane over Myanmar to finish two points ahead of the Syrians and seal a spot in the third round.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists Korea Republic are another regular participant at the global showpiece having qualified for 10 successive editions, last time out beating Portugal to reach the Round of 16 and currently boasting one of the world’s finest players in Son Heung-min.

The Korea Republic captain, who finished as the joint top-scorer with seven goals in the previous round of qualifying, was one of five different scorers in a dominant 5-0 opening-day win versus Singapore before the 31-year-old scored two more to see off China PR in Shenzhen.

Another Son goal in a surprise 1-1 home draw with Thailand was the only time they dropped points before Southeast Asian trips to Bangkok and Singapore saw them score a combined 10 goals without reply, closing their Group C campaign in front of just under 65,000 fans in Seoul with Lee Kang-in’s winner against China PR.

China PR’s only FIFA World Cup appearance was in 2002 as they now aim to end the drought and it was the perfect start when they came from behind to beat Thailand 2-1 in a game that ultimately proved to be the difference maker in Group C.

A home defeat to Korea Republic and a draw against Singapore wasn’t ideal at the halfway stage but Wu Lei’s brace in a 4-1 win against the Singaporeans followed by a vital Zhang Yuning equaliser against the Thais gave them a priceless point going into the final fixture.

Despite a narrow defeat to the Koreans on Matchday Six, the Chinese side ended up with eight points as well as the same goal difference as Thailand meaning that Wang Shangyuan’s Matchday One winning goal between the sides edged them through to be amongst the 18 teams for the upcoming draw.