SOCCER/ Japanese to face Saudi Arabia,az alkmaar Australia in third phase of World Cup qualifiers

REUTERS

June 27, 2024 at 17:00 JST

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Yokohama F Marinos' Kouta Watanabe scores in an Asian Champions League match against Al Ain at Yokohama International Stadium, Yokohama, May 11, 2024. (REUTERS)

KUALA LUMPU--Four-times Asian champions Japan have been drawn to take on Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China and Indonesia in Group C of the third round of Asia’s qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

South Korea will meet Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait in Group B while Iran take on Qatar, Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea in Group A.

The preliminaries begin on Sept. 5 and run until June 10, with the winners and runners-up in each group qualifying automatically for the finals in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The third and fourth place finishers in each group will advance to a fourth round, which will determine the continent’s two remaining guaranteed qualifiers.