2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round

The second round of 2026 FIFA World Cup AFC qualification, which also served as the second round of 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification, began on 16 November 2023 and was completed on 11 June 2024.

A total of 36 teams were drawn into nine groups of four to play home-and-away round-robin matches. They included the 26 teams which received byes to this round, and the 10 winners from the first round.

The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the third round and qualified for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. The third and fourth place teams advanced to the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualification.

The draw for the second round was held on 27 July 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2023 (shown in parentheses below). The identities of the first round winners were not known at the time of the draw.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the third round of World Cup qualifying.

† Teams whose identity was not known at the time of the draw.

‡ Team moved to Pot 3 after the other Pot 4 teams had been drawn into groups; subsequently drawn at random from Pot 3.

The match schedule was as follows.

There were 331 goals scored in 107 matches, for an average of 3.09 goals per match.

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6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions:

• Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions)
• Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the second round:

• Official FIFA World Cup website
• FIFA.com
• FIFA World Cup – the-AFC.com
• 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification