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Palestine’s delegation will leave Kuala Lumpur relatively happy with a draw that avoided arduous travel and several sides with World Cup pedigree.
The lower ranked sides had all hoped to avoid being grouped with Australia a fate that befell Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, and Indonesia who will all have to lock horns with the Socceroos and Japan who both qualified for the Round of 16 at Qatar 2022.
Group A is similarly tricky with a tricky trip to Pyongyang lying in wait for the five other sides. There is a Central Asian flavour to the group with Uzbekistan and Iran due to meet two more times- renewing their rivalry from Round 2. Iran will also get the chance to avenge their loss to Qatar in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup semifinal. Kyrgyzstan one of three Round 3 debutants rounds out the group.
Palestine will feel confident of taking points from eight of ten encounters. Kuwait is the lowest ranked side of the 18 teams in Round Three and needed a helping hand from Afghanistan and Qatar to overhaul India on the final Match Day of Round 2.
Palestine have split their competitive encounters with Oman winning 2-1 at home and lose 1-0 away during qualification for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
Iraq and Jordan present tougher propositions. Palestine last beat Jordan in 1976 and have never managed a win against Iraq.
That said, Palestine did manage secure two draws against Iraq’s golden generation during 2006 World Cup qualification (1-1) and 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification (2-2). Palestine and Jordan have met in ten official matches since 1998- five of which have been draws. There have only been three competitive encounters- two of which came at the Asian Cup in 2019 and 2015 and once during qualification for the 2000 Asian Cup.
After the draw, Head Coach Makram Daboub played down his team’s chances at direct qualification: “I think the draw was difficult but we have a chance, and our target is to be among the top four teams in the group, and we hope that the players will be up to the expectations.”
Palestine have never faced Korea Republic at senior level. The Taeguk Warriors have the most World Cup appearances amongst Asian sides (11) and have appeared at the last ten editions- the fifth longest active streak in the world behind Champions Brazil (22), Argentina (18), and Spain (12).
Palestine will open Group B play against Korea in Seoul on September 5th before playing host to Jordan (on neutral territory) five days later. The rest of the qualifying schedule is as follows:
The top two teams from each group will qualify directly to the 2026 World Cup while the bottom two teams will be eliminated. The teams in positions three and four advance to the Fourth Round. The six teams will then be placed in two groups of three hosted by the top ranked team. A round robin over two matches in October 2025 will produce two more World Cup finalists. The second place teams will play a home and away playoff in November 2025 with the winner advancing to the inter-confederation playoffs in March 2026.
