2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification – play-off round

The play-off round of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification was played from 2 June to 11 October 2016.

2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification-play-off round

Tournament details
Dates	2 June 2016 & 6–7 June 2016
Teams	11 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	45 (2.81 per match)
Attendance	95,310 (5,957 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jeje Lalpekhlua & Ahmad Hazwan Bakri (3 Goals)
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Format

A total of 11 teams (the four lowest-ranked fourth-placed teams and the seven fifth-placed teams of the Asian Cup qualifying second round) competed in the play-off round. Originally, 12 teams were supposed to compete, but there were only seven instead of eight fifth-placed teams after Indonesia were disqualified due to FIFA suspension.^[1]

The play-off round consisted of two rounds of home-and-away two-legged play-off matches to determine the final eight qualifiers for the Asian Cup qualifying third round:^[2]

• Round 1: The ten highest-seeded teams were drawn into five ties. The five winners advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round, while the five losers entered Round 2.
• Round 2: The six teams (the lowest-seeded team and the five Round 1 losers) were drawn into three ties. The three winners advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round, while the three losers were eligible to enter the AFC Solidarity Cup.^[3]

The five Round 1 winners and three Round 2 winners joined the 16 teams which advanced directly from the Asian Cup qualifying second round to the third round, to compete for the final 12 slots in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.^[4]

The three Round 2 losers joined the six teams which lost in the Asian Cup qualifying first round, to compete for the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup.

Qualified teams

Group (2nd round)	Fourth place (Worst 4)	Fifth place
A	Malaysia	Timor-Leste
B	Tajikistan	Bangladesh
C	Maldives	Bhutan
D	—	India
E	—	Cambodia
F	Chinese Taipei	—
G	—	Laos
H	—	Yemen

Seeding

The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 April 2016, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[5]

The teams were seeded based on their results in the Asian Cup qualifying second round.^[2]

In Round 1, each tie contained a team from Pot 1 and a team from Pot 2, with the team from Pot 1 hosting the first leg.

In Round 2, there were no seeding. As the draw was held before Round 1 was played, the identities of the Round 1 losers were not known at the time of the draw.

Round 1		Round 2
Pot 1	Pot 2
Tajikistan  Chinese Taipei  Maldives  Malaysia  Laos	India  Yemen  Timor-Leste  Bangladesh  Cambodia	Bhutan

Matches

Each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 10.3).^[4]

Round 1

The first legs were played on 2 June, and the second legs were played on 6–7 June 2016.^[2][6]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Chinese Taipei	2–4	Cambodia	2–2	0–2
Maldives	0–4	Yemen	0–2	0–2
Tajikistan	6–0	Bangladesh	5–0	1–0
Malaysia	6–0	Timor-Leste	3–0 (Forfeited)[7]	3–0 (Forfeited)[7]
Laos	1–7	India	0–1	1–6

Note: Timor-Leste were ordered by the AFC to forfeit both matches against Malaysia due to the use of falsified documents for their players.^[7] Both matches originally ended as 3–0 wins to Malaysia.

Chinese Taipei	2–2	Cambodia
Huang Wei-min 6' Chen Po-liang 22'	Report	Sokpheng 8' Chhoeun 32'

2 June 2016 (2016-6-2)

19:00 UTC+8

National Stadium, Kaohsiung

Attendance: 3,564

Referee: Pranjal Banerjee (India)

Cambodia	2–0	Chinese Taipei
Pheng 7' Mony Udom 60' (pen.)	Report

7 June 2016 (2016-6-7)

19:00 UTC+7

Olympic Stadium, Phnom Penh

Attendance: 50,000

Referee: Ahmed Al-Ali (Jordan)

Cambodia won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Chinese Taipei entered round 2.

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Maldives	0–2	Yemen
	Report	Al-Hagri 31' Al-Worafi 80'

2 June 2016 (2016-6-2)

21:00 UTC+5

National Football Stadium, Malé

Attendance: 2,600

Referee: Kim Dae-yong (South Korea)

Yemen	2–0	Maldives
Al-Matari 24' Samooh 54' (o.g.)	Report

7 June 2016 (2016-6-7)

22:00 UTC+3

Grand Hamad Stadium, Doha (Qatar)^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 200

Referee: Sivakorn Pu-udom (Thailand)

Yemen won 4–0 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Maldives entered round 2.

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Tajikistan	5–0	Bangladesh
J. Ergashev 19', 30' Umarbayev 33' D. Ergashev 49' Sharipov 72'	Report

2 June 2016 (2016-6-2)

20:00 UTC+5

Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe

Attendance: 8,332

Referee: Hanna Hattab (Syria)

Bangladesh	0–1	Tajikistan
	Report	Nazarov 8'

7 June 2016 (2016-6-7)

16:30 UTC+6

Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka

Attendance: 800

Referee: Hussein Abo Yehia (Lebanon)

Tajikistan won 6–0 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Bangladesh entered round 2.

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Malaysia	3–0 Forfeited[7]	Timor-Leste
Hazwan 16', 21' Amri 85'	Report

2 June 2016 (2016-6-2)

20:45 UTC+8

Tan Sri Dato Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium, Johor Bahru

Attendance: 3,600

Referee: Hiroyuki Kimura (Japan)

Timor-Leste	0–3 Forfeited[7]	Malaysia
	Report	Jones 16' Hazwan 58' S. Chanturu 68'

6 June 2016 (2016-6-6)

22:00 UTC+8

Tan Sri Dato Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium, Johor Bahru (Malaysia)^{[note 2]}

Attendance: 1,145

Referee: Ho Wai Sing (Hong Kong)

Malaysia won 6–0 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Timor-Leste entered round 2.

---

Laos	0–1	India
	Report	Lalpekhlua 55'

2 June 2016 (2016-6-2)

18:30 UTC+7

Lao National Stadium, Vientiane

Attendance: 1,200

Referee: Omar Al-Yaqoubi (Oman)

India	6–1	Laos
Lalpekhlua 43', 74' Passi 45+1' Jhingan 48' Rafique 83' Cardozo 87'	Report	Sihavong 16'

7 June 2016 (2016-6-7)

19:00 UTC+5:30

Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati

Attendance: 2,500

Referee: Jansen Foo (Singapore)

India won 7–1 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Laos entered round 2.

Round 2

The first legs were played on 6 September and 8 October, and the second legs were played on 10 and 11 October 2016.^[2][6]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Maldives	5–1	Laos	4–0	1–1
Bangladesh	1–3	Bhutan	0–0	1–3
Timor-Leste	2–4	Chinese Taipei	1–2	1–2

Maldives	4–0	Laos
Fasir 15' Ashfaq 62', 90+3' Niyaz 87'	Report

6 September 2016 (2016-9-6)

21:00 UTC+5

National Football Stadium, Malé

Attendance: 4,700

Referee: Masaaki Toma (Japan)

Laos	1–1	Maldives
Sihavong 80'	Report	Nashid 90+1'

11 October 2016 (2016-10-11)

18:00 UTC+7

Lao National Stadium, Vientiane

Attendance: 1,200

Referee: Dmitry Mashentsev (Kyrgyzstan)

Maldives won 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Laos were eligible to enter the Solidarity Cup.

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Bangladesh	0–0	Bhutan
	Report

6 September 2016 (2016-9-6)

19:00 UTC+6

Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka

Attendance: 5,000

Referee: Çarymyrat Kurbanow (Turkmenistan)

Bhutan	3–1	Bangladesh
J. Dorji 4' C. Gyeltshen 26', 76'	Report	Mamunul 63'

10 October 2016 (2016-10-10)

18:00 UTC+6

Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu

Attendance: 6,120

Referee: Khurram Shahzad (Pakistan)

Bhutan won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Bangladesh were eligible to enter the Solidarity Cup.

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Timor-Leste	1–2	Chinese Taipei
Gama 5'	Report	Wu Chun-ching 8', 38'

8 October 2016 (2016-10-8)

19:00 UTC+8

National Stadium, Kaohsiung (Taiwan)^{[note 3]}

Attendance: 2,849

Referee: Võ Minh Trí (Vietnam)

Chinese Taipei	2–1	Timor-Leste
Chen Yi-wei 10' Chen Hao-wei 75'	Report	Oliveira 85'

11 October 2016 (2016-10-11)

19:00 UTC+8

National Stadium, Kaohsiung

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Kim Hee-gon (South Korea)

Chinese Taipei won 4–2 on aggregate and advanced to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. Timor-Leste were eligible to enter the Solidarity Cup.

Goalscorers

There were 46 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.88 goals per match.

3 goals

• Jeje Lalpekhlua
• Ahmad Hazwan Bakri

2 goals

• Chencho Gyeltshen
• Wu Chun-ching
• Khonesavanh Sihavong
• Ali Ashfaq
• Jahongir Ergashev

1 goal

• Mamunul Islam
• Jigme Dorji
• Chhin Chhoeun
• Prak Mony Udom
• Hong Pheng
• Keo Sokpheng
• Chen Hao-wei
• Chen Po-liang
• Chen Yi-wei
• Huang Wei-min
• Fulganco Cardozo
• Sandesh Jhingan
• Sumit Passi
• Mohammed Rafique
• Chanturu Suppiah
• Khair Jones
• Mohd Amri Yahyah
• Ali Fasir
• Hussain Niyaz Mohamed
• Ahmed Nashid
• Davron Ergashev
• Akhtam Nazarov
• Umedzhon Sharipov
• Parvizdzhon Umarbayev
• Rufino Gama
• José Oliveira
• Ayman Al-Hagri
• Abdulwasea Al-Matari
• Akram Al-Worafi

1 own goal

• Ali Samooh (playing against Yemen)

Source: Asian Football Confederation

Notes

1. Yemen played their round 1 home match in Qatar due to security concerns from the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.
2. Timor-Leste played their round 1 home match in Malaysia.
3. Timor-Leste played their round 2 home match in Taiwan.