According to Tasnim news agency, the draw ceremony for the 2023 Asian Nations Cup will be held at 14:30 tomorrow (Thursday – Iran time), hosted by the “Katara Opera House” in Doha, Qatar.
The national team of our country in 1976 sat on the summit of Asia for the third and last time and this year is trying to return the championship trophy to Iran after 47 years and seven months. After two periods of failure with Carlos Queiroz, the helm of the national team in these games is once again entrusted to a national coach, and Amir Qalanewi’s men have a difficult task against fierce rivals such as Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Australia.
Thanks to getting the second place in the ranking of the Asian continent in the latest FIFA ranking, Iran is in the first seed after the host Qatar and Japan. After successfully hosting the 2022 World Cup, Qatar will battle Carlos Queiroz to defend their title in 2019. The names of South Korea, Australia and Saudi Arabia are also seen in the first seed of the tournament, and in the group stage, they will not face the students of Amir Qalanewi.
The Iraqi national team, which has a history of winning the Asian Nations Cup in its record and is in the 67th place of the FIFA ranking, is the toughest team of Seyed II. The Emirates, the host of the last edition of the competition, and Oman, which has Branko Ivankovic on the bench, are ranked eighth and ninth in the old continent and can make the work of our country’s national team difficult. Uzbekistan, China and Jordan complete the second seed teams.
The teams of Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon are also in the third tier. Bahrain, which is ranked 85th in the world and created sweet and bitter memories for Iranian football fans in the first decade of the 21st century, is considered the best team of this Seyed. The teams of Syria and Lebanon were in the same group as our country’s team in the selection of the 2022 World Cup. The national teams of Palestine, Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan have not met Iran in recent years.
The six three-digit teams present in the Asian Nations Cup, namely India, Tajikistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, form the teams present in the fourth seed. These teams are not among the top 100 teams in the world. Tajikistan is participating in the Asian Nations Cup for the first time, and Hong Kong and Indonesia are returning to these competitions after a period of absence.
The draw for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup is as follows (teams’ positions in the AFC standings are in parentheses):
Seyed first: Qatar (host – 61), Japan (20), Iran (24)South Korea (27), Australia (29) and Saudi Arabia (54)
Seyed II: Iraq (67), UAE (72), Oman (73), Uzbekistan (74), China (81) and Jordan (84)
Seyed Som: Bahrain (85), Syria (90), Palestine (93), Vietnam (95), Kyrgyzstan (96) and Lebanon (99)
Seyed IV: India (101), Tajikistan (109), Thailand (114), Malaysia (138), Hong Kong (147) and Indonesia (149)
If the ranking of the Asian national teams is taken into account, the group with Iraq, Bahrain and India can be considered the most difficult draw for the Iranian national team, and the confrontation with Jordan, Lebanon and Indonesia in the group stage is the easiest draw for Qalanewi students.