Despite a 1-1 draw against India on Tuesday night’s qualifying match for the World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023, Afghanistan has only qualified for the third round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. 

Afghanistan’s football team is no longer in the running for the World Cup 2022.

On Tuesday night’s match, Afghanistan’s captain Farshad Noori was injured in the first half and neither team scored.  

In the second half, at minute 75, India took the lead 1-0 when Afghan goalkeeper Ovays Azizi lost control of the ball during an unthreatening play and it went into the Afgan goal. At minute 82, Afghanistan’s Hossein Zamani scored his first goal for Afghanistan and the match ended 1-1. 

On Wednesday, AFC officially confirmed 22 out of 24 teams would advance to the AFC Asian Cup's third round of qualifiers.

Three of the lowest-ranked second-place teams, all eight third and fourth-placed teams across Groups A to H, as well as the three best fifth-place teams – 22 teams in total – have qualified for the 24-team Asian Cup China 2023 Qualifiers final round. 

The remaining four participating teams, ranked 36 to 39, will compete in the Asian Cup qualifiers playoffs, which will be played over two periods -- September 7 and October 12, 2021.

13 participating teams, including Asian Cup 2023 host China and FIFA World Cup 2022 host and reigning Asian champions Qatar, have sealed their places in the competition, which is scheduled to take place from June 16 to July 16, 2023. 

The draw for the third round will take place on June 24, 2021.