2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round

2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round
Tournament details
Dates	25 March 2025 – 31 March 2026
Teams	24 (from 1 confederation)
	← 2023 2031 →

The third round of 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification will be played from 25 March 2025 to 31 March 2026.^[1]

Format

A total of 24 teams (3 best ranked losing teams from the first round + 18 third and fourth-placed teams from the second round + 3 winners from the play-off round) will participate in the third round to compete for the final six slots in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

The 24 teams will be divided into six groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. Only the group winners of each group will qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, where they will join the 18 teams which qualified directly from the second round.^[1]

Qualified teams

Best-ranked losing teams from the first round:

Teams finishing third or fourth in their respective second round groups:

Play-off round winners:

Seeding

The seeding will be based on the FIFA World Rankings at the time of the draw on 9 December 2024 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[2]

The 24 teams will be drawn into six groups of four. Each group will contain one team from each respective seeding pots.

Schedule

The schedule of each matchday is expected to be as follows.^[3]^[4]

Matchday	Date(s)	Matches
Matchday 1	25 March 2025	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Matchday 2	10 June 2025	4 v 3, 2 v 1
Matchday 3	9 October 2025	4 v 2, 1 v 3
Matchday 4	14 October 2025	2 v 4, 3 v 1
Matchday 5	18 November 2025	4 v 1, 2 v 3
Matchday 6	31 March 2026	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Groups

Only the winner of each group will qualify for the final tournament, joining the 18 teams that qualified directly (including the host).

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):^[5]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying criteria 1 to 3, a subset of teams were 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);
Drawing of lots.