AFC Asian Cup qualifiers: Cambodia in same group with India

The AFC Asian Cup qualifiers will be the next big tournament for Cambodia. KT/Yeun Punlue / Jose Rodriguez T. Senase / Khmer Times

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Cambodia is grouped together with India and two other countries for the upcoming Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup China 2023 Qualifiers Final Round.

The draw for the tournament, which was held yesterday at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, put Cambodia in Group D, together with the national teams of India, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.

Cambodia reached the third and final round of the qualifiers after a play-off win over Guam in October last year. Cambodia beat Guam twice to win via an aggregate score of 3-1.

The qualifiers for Group D are going to be staged in India from June 8 to 14, according to the Football Federation of Cambodia. The AFC has yet to release the complete schedule and venues for the matches.

This will be the next big tournament abroad for the Angkor Warriors. The Cambodian national football team did not make it past the group stage in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U-23 Championship.

The AFF tournament, which was hosted by Cambodia, is still ongoing.

The qualifiers will determine who will advance to the Final of the AFC Asian Cup, which is going to be held in China from June 16 to July 16, 2023.

Group A consists of Jordan, Kuwait, Indonesia and Nepal, while Group B is composed of Mongolia, Yemen, Palestine and the Philippines.

Uzbekistan, Thailand, Maldives and Sri Lanka are grouped together in Group C, while Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Malaysia and Bangladesh belong to Group E. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Myanmar and Singapore are together in Group F.

Six group winners, plus the five best runners-up, will emerge from the qualifiers.

They will join the 13 countries, including China, Japan, Syria, Qatar, South Korea, Australia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Vietnam and Lebanon, which have already qualified for the Final.

Cambodia faced Hong Kong in the second round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifications. The first game between the two sides ended in a draw, before Hong Kong routed Cambodia, 2-0, in the second match, which was held in the Chinese territory.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, won over Cambodia in three out of four meetings. Cambodia’s lone win against Afghanistan was registered during the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in 2017.

Cambodia also lost three of four matches against India in the past. The Angkor Warriors played against India at the Merdeka Cup (1964), AFC Asian Cup (1967), Nehru Cup (2007) and in an international friendly five years ago.