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]
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
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]
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);
