Indonesia's chance to attend the 2026 World Cup
Indonesia coach Kluivert personally attended the draw held at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but he had to witness his team fall into an extremely difficult group for the goal of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
Indonesia will face Saudi Arabia again in the fourth qualifying round. In the previous qualifying round, they won 2-0 and drew 1-1.
Photo: Reuters
With Indonesia in Group B along with Saudi Arabia and Iraq, while Group A is Qatar, UAE and Oman. The hosts of these two groups, Saudi Arabia and Qatar respectively, will have a significant advantage in winning the remaining two official tickets of the Asian region to the 2026 World Cup.
In the third qualifying round, the Indonesian team drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia and won 2-0. But against Iraq, they lost 1-5 and 0-2 in the second qualifying round in a group with the Vietnamese team, when coach Shin Tae-yong was still in charge.
The fourth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia will take place from October 8 to 14. The top teams in the two groups will win the remaining two official tickets from the Asian region to the 2026 World Cup. The two runners-up will play two play-off matches on November 13 and 18, with the winning team entering the intercontinental play-off round (6 teams) to compete for two play-off tickets in March 2026.
Results of the draw for the fourth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia
Photo: AFC
Therefore, each match in this round is like a final match. The Indonesian team will play their first match in the fourth qualifying round against Saudi Arabia on October 8, followed by a match against Iraq on October 11.
Coach Kluivert and his team must win both matches to secure a ticket to the 2026 World Cup. This is a huge challenge and also an opportunity for the team from the archipelago to make history as they currently have the largest number of naturalized players in Southeast Asia.
In addition, Indonesia also hopes to finish second in the group to enter the adventure in the continental and intercontinental play-offs, but will have an extremely low probability of winning a ticket because they will meet many strong teams in South America, Africa and CONCACAF...
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vong-loai-thu-tu-world-cup-2026-chau-a-indonesia-gap-a-rap-xe-ut-va-iraq-185250717143931249.htm
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