In the last two rounds of the Asian round of 36 of the World Preliminary Championships, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia and other seeded teams all dominated their standings with six points, and it was only a matter of time before they qualified. The number of places in Asia has increased to 8Five people, many of Asia's top teams have secured the World Cup finals, including Australia from Oceania.
In the last century, Australia only played one game in the World Cup finals, and in 2006 the Australian Football Federation separated from the Oceania Football Confederation and chose the AFC in order to avoid playing a South American team in the intercontinental play-offs.
Since then, Australia has enjoyed real "benefits", qualifying for five consecutive World Cups in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022, which has also squeezed the competition for other Asian teams.
Despite having one direct quota place for Oceania in the next World Cup, Australia remains in the AFC and competes in the World Qualifiers in Asia.
According to the grouping, Australia and Palestine, Lebanon and Bangladesh are in the same group, Australia's strength is unique, the first round of home 7-0 win over Bangladesh, the second round away 1-0 win over Palestine, blast out of 8-0 aggregate score, 2 consecutive wins 0 goals, 6 points to lead the group standings.
Palestine and Lebanon in Pot 3 were both left behind by Australia, who are expected to qualify for the second round of the tournament.
The aforementioned Australian strength has basically locked in one place and will reach the World Cup finals for the seventh time in their history, while other teams will find it difficult to stop this trend.
Palestine, Lebanon and Bangladesh, who are in the same group as Australia, will compete for another qualification spot. Judging from the first two rounds, the second-ranked Palestine has limited strength, and the overall strength of Lebanon in the last round of 12 has declined significantly, and Bangladesh played 1-1 in front of the world ranked 183, and won two consecutive draws. Not surprisingly, these three teams may have to battle it out until the final round to produce another qualifying spot.
Seeing Lebanon's performance in the third pot game, the national football team was not in the same group as it, which was too unlucky, and it was drawn to Thailand, the strongest position in the third pot game, which made it more difficult to qualify.
Imagine that if the national football team is in the same group as Australia, Lebanon and Bangladesh, it is inevitable that they will not be able to beat Australia, but if they can win against the other two opponents of Lebanon and Bangladesh, then at least 80% of the chance will be able to secure the top two places in the group.
Judging from the schedule, every time the national football team participates in the World Preliminary Tournament, it will play back-to-back matches with Singapore, a weak team in Southeast Asia, in March next year, and the quality of the results directly determines the team's hope of qualifying.
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