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A total of 24 teams (22 teams which advanced from the second round and two teams which advanced from the play-off round) participated in the third round to compete for the final eleven slots in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. Since the 2023 former hosts China advanced to the third round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the automatic slot for the hosts was no longer necessary.
The 24 teams were divided into six groups of four teams to play single round-robin matches in six centralised venues. The group winners and the best five runners-up across all groups qualified for the Asian Cup, where they were joined by China and the twelve teams which qualified directly from the second round.
On 17 February 2022, the AFC announced the six countries that would be hosting the third round: India, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.
Since Qatar qualified for the Asian Cup as second round group winner, the fifth runner-up also qualified for the third round of AFC qualification for the World Cup, while the three bottom-ranked runners-up competed in the third round of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
Seeding
The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings at the time of the draw on 24 February 2022. Teams from the host countries were placed in a separate pot allotted for hosts member associations (MAs), although their final group positions reflected their original draw seeding.
Host Pot contained the teams from the host countries (group positions reflected their original draw seeding positions).
Pot 1 contained the teams ranked 1–6 (except Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and India).
Pot 2 contained the teams ranked 7–12 (except Kuwait).
Pot 3 contained the teams ranked 13–18 (except Malaysia).
Pot 4 contained the teams ranked 19–24 (except Mongolia).
The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four. Each group contained one team from the host pot and the remaining seeding pots, except for the original seeding pot of the host country.
The national teams which qualified are presented in bold.
The winner of each group (qualified directly for the final tournament).
The runner-up of each group (could qualify for the final tournament if they were among the five best runners-up).
Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 7.3):
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; (was not applied as the qualifiers were played in centralized venues)
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying criteria 1 to 3, a subset of teams was still tied, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
The arrangement was based upon the FIFA World Rankings of February 2022.
Since thirteen teams instead of twelve qualified for the finals from the second round, there were only eleven remaining slots available. Hence, the best five second placed teams out of six groups qualified for the Asian Cup finals.
Sunil Chhetri (4 goals)
Philippines
Maldives
Kuwait
Jordan
Nepal
Bahrain
Hong Kong
Cambodia
Uzbekistan
Palestine
Singapore
Yemen
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Tajikistan
Kyrgyzstan
Mongolia
Myanmar
Malaysia
Thailand
Indonesia
Turkmenistan
Sri Lanka
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