India Drawn Alongside Qatar in 2nd Round of 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers

New Delhi: The Indian football team have been drawn in Group E of the second round of 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers as the draw took place at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

India are placed in the group alongside Qatar, Oman, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The qualifiers will begin from September 5, 2019 and will take place till June 9, 2020 during all the international windows present throughout the calendar year.

India have got a fairly balanced group but will still have to fight hard in order to advance to the next round of World Cup qualifiers and qualify for 2023 AFC Asian Cup in China.

The group stage will be played in a double round-robin format where all teams will face each other twice in home and away conditions.

India last played Qatar in September 1996 in a FIFA World Cup qualifier and were thrashed 6-0.

India have played seven matches against Oman from 1994-2018. Their most recent meeting was an international friendly on December 27, 2018 which ended in a goalless draw. Other than that, India have defeated Oman only once and that was back in 1994 in the Independence Cup. Off the seven games, India have managed two draws against Oman and have lost four times.

India should see positives in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, against both of whom they have strong records.

India have an overwhelming record against Afghanistan, where they have won six of the eight matches played between the two. Their most recent meeting came in the SAFF Championships 2016, where India won 2-1.

India have played Bangladesh a total of 28 times and have defeated them on 15 occasions.

Here is India's schedule for the qualifiers. The matches where India is mentioned before the matches are home matches while the rest are away.

September 5: India vs Oman

September 10: Qatar vs India

October 15: India vs Bangladesh

November 14: Afghanistan vs India

November 19: Oman vs India

March 26: India vs Qatar

June 4: Bangladesh vs India

June 9: India vs Afghanistan

Here are all the eight group of the World Cup qualifiers:

Group A: China PR, Syria, Philippines, Maldives, Guam

Group B: Australia, Jordan, Taiwan, Kuwait, Nepal

Group C: Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Cambodia

Group D: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Palestine, Yemen, Singapore

Group E: Qatar, Oman, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh

Group F: Japan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Myanmar, Mongolia

Group G: UAE, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia

Group H: Korea Republic, Lebanon, DPR Korea, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka