The AFC first round of

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, which also served as the first round of

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, was played from 12 to 17 October 2023.

Format

A total of twenty teams were drawn into ten home-and-away ties, the winners of which advanced to the

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. As the second round draw occurred on the same date as the first round draw, each winner already knew their second round schedule.

Schedule

The schedule was as follows:

Draw

The draw for the first round was held on 27 July 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These 20 teams were divided into ten pairings, with each pair playing home and away across 12 and 17 October 2023. The numbers in parentheses indicate the

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of July 2023. Note: Bolded teams qualified for the

Summary

The ten winners advanced to the second round of qualifying.

Matches

Afghanistan won 2–0 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Bangladesh won 3–2 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Singapore won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Yemen won 4–1 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Myanmar won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Pakistan won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Chinese Taipei won 7–0 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Indonesia won 12–0 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Hong Kong won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the

. ---- Nepal won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the

Ranking of best losing teams

The first round doubled as preliminary qualifying for the

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. As originally planned, the top-ranked losing team would progress directly to the third round of Asian Cup qualifying, while the remainder would join the

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in the play-off round. However,

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withdrew and the Northern Mariana Islands were not included in the draw for the play-off round announced on 1 May 2024. This resulted in the top three losing teams (

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, and

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) moving directly to the third round, and the remaining six teams entering the play-off round.

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions: * Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions) * Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches) The following suspension was served during the first round:

Notes

References

External links

*
FIFA.comFIFA World Cup
– the-AFC.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:2026 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC first round 1 1 2023 in Asian football FIFA World Cup qualification, AFC Round 1