World Cup 2026 Asian qualifiers:
Iran fancies easy progress after favorable draw
Iran will begin its quest for a seventh World Cup participation – fourth in succession – with a home game against Kyrgyzstan on September 5.
Eighteen teams were divided into three groups in the third-round draw of the Asian qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, where Iran was placed in Group A – also featuring Qatar, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and DPR Korea.
Seeded in Pot 1 of the draw alongside Japan and South Korea, Iran was lucky to avoid the continent’s fellow-old guard members Saudi Arabia and Australia as well as Jordan, Iraq, and Bahrain, which were all impressive in January’s AFC Asian Cup.
With the top two in each group progressing to the finals in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, Iran head coach Amir Qalenoei hopes his side will have secured qualification when the final round of the group fixtures takes place on June 10 next year.
However, the qualifiers could still pose some tricky tests for Qalenoei’s men, who shared the spoils with Uzbekistan in a double header in the previous round, either side of a last-four defeat against eventual champion Qatar in the Asian Cup.
Iran has also face two other group opponents over the past 12 months, thrashing Kyrgyzstan 5-1 in the inaugural CAFA Nations Cup last year before beating the UAE 2-1 in the Asian Cup group phase.
The game against the North Korea, meanwhile, will be a first encounter with the East Asian team for Iran in 13 years.
The second and third matchdays will see Iran visit the UAE and Uzbekistan respectively, followed by home fixtures against Qatar and North Korea.
“Qatar won the Asian Cup in the past two editions and has a top-notch league. Uzbekistan has also invested massively on the youth levels and the recent results show the country is a rising power in the Asian football,” said Qalenoei, who remained “confident” Iran will qualify as a top-two side in the group.
Meanwhile, Andranik Teymourian, a member of Qalenoei’s coaching staff who played for the country in the 2006 and 2014 World Cups, said: “The level of the Asian teams is so close and there are no easy games in the continent, though I still believe we were handed a favorable draw, given the formation of other groups.”
Elsewhere in the draw, South Korea was pitted against Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, and Kuwait in Group B and will have to make long trips to the Middle East for the away games.
“We are aware of each team’s abilities and every game will be tough but we will try our best to achieve our target,” said Lee Lim-saeng, the technical director of the Korea Football Association.
“I won’t say we are completely happy with the draw because we have a lot of tough games. We respect the qualities of all the teams in our group but we have to be confident that we can make it,” added the South Korea.
Asian heavyweights Japan, Australia, and Saudi Arabia will be the favorites for a top-two finish in Group C – also including Bahrain, China, and Indonesia.
Australia head coach Graham Arnold was unfazed by the daunting challenge awaiting the Socceroos, saying: “I believe we can finish in the top two. You’ve got to have that belief and that energy to bring the focus to getting the job done.”
“I do believe we’ve gotten stronger as a team, I think in the last campaign we didn’t probably have the depth that we’ve got today.
“Individually some players have got promoted in the English Premier League and in the German Bundesliga 1, so as a young team – and we still are a young team – we’re getting better and better.”
The teams finishing third and fourth in each group will have a second chance to head to the World Cup as they will be drawn into two groups of three, with the group winners going through and the runners-up going head-to-head for a place in the intercontinental playoff.