The 2026 World Cup Qualifiers Asian Zone Round of 36 has been played for 4 rounds, and the promotion situation of each group is gradually becoming clear, and the seeded teams in 9 groups have basically advanced to the round of 18. In Group A, two-time Asian Cup champions Qatar have already secured the top spot in the group two rounds in advance, and the remaining one qualifier will be between India, Afghanistan and Kuwait, and all three teams have a chance to qualify from the group.
In Group A, Qatar won all four games, scoring 16 goals and conceding only 23 goals, and advanced to the round of 18. India and Afghanistan are tied on four points, with India in 2nd place due to the winning goal advantage, Afghanistan in 3rd place and Kuwait in 4th place. Kuwait reached the peak of team history in the 80s of the last century, winning the Asian Cup in 1980, but in recent years, Kuwait's performance has declined across the board and has been reduced to a third-rate team.
In fact, Kuwait was divided into Group A, judging from the results of the draw, Kuwait's signing luck is not bad, India in the same group, Afghanistan's strength is limited, Kuwait is the most favored team by fans to be able to advance from the group in the season, but it backfired, Kuwait met India in the first round, and Kuwait besieged India in the whole stadium without success, but India seized the opportunity to counterattack fatally, losing with a score of 0-1.
Kuwait faced Afghanistan in the second round, and the Kuwait team was full of firepower, defeating Afghanistan with a score of 4-0 and achieving the first victory of this World Preliminary Tournament. However, in their back-to-back home-and-away games against Qatar in March, Kuwait lost 1-2 and 0-3 respectively to finish bottom of the group with just three points.
For Kuwait, the possibility of qualifying for the round of 18 of the World Preliminary Championship is still maintained, because Kuwait's opponents in the last two rounds are India and Afghanistan, and as long as Kuwait wins both groups, then they will occupy a place to qualify. Now the most crucial game against Kuwait is the away game against India on June 6, this game is important for both teams, India will basically advance to the round of 18 if it wins, but if India and Kuwait draw, then India will face Qatar in the final round, and Kuwait still has a chance to counterattack and advance.
India is ranked 121st in the world and Afghanistan is ranked 151st in the world, both of which are super clubs in Asian football, and Kuwait has only 1 win and 3 losses in the first four rounds of such a group, which really surprises fans. Now there are only 2 rounds left in the round of 36 of the World Preliminaries, although Kuwait is at the bottom, the initiative to advance is still in their own hands, as long as they score 6 points in the last two rounds, they can advance.
After 4 rounds, the standings of Group C, the South Korean team has 10 points and advances, the national football team has 7 points, Thailand has 4 points, and Singapore has 1 point to go out in advance. In this group, the national football team and Thailand will compete for a place to advance. As long as the Sino-Thai battle on June 6 wins, the national football team will reach 10 points, 6 points beyond the Thai team, so as to qualify from the group one round ahead of schedule, advance to the round of 18, and hit 8.5 promotion places.