Doha: The Indian men’s football team will open its campaign in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 against former champion Australia in Group B at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on January 13.
Asia’s top 24 teams discovered their group stage fate at the Katara Opera House in Doha for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 on Thursday and will do battle at the Continental showpiece between January 12 to February 10, 2024.
Besides India and Australia, the other teams in Group B are Uzbekistan and Syria.
In their other Group B matches in the Asian Cup, India will take on Uzbekistan on January 18 and Syria on January 23.
The AFC and the LOC for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 confirmed last month that the eagerly anticipated tournament will be staged across eight stadiums. Six of these were venues for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, setting the stage for the first-ever AFC Asian Cup to be played at World Cup venues.
Hosts for a record third time, defending champions Qatar will get Asia’s most prestigious competition underway by facing Lebanon on January 12, 2024. The 68,895-capacity Al Bayt Stadium is set to witness an opening spectacle between the two West Asian teams, who have previously only met once in AFC Asian Cup history. It will be Qatar’s 40th match in tournament history, while Lebanon will be playing in an opening match of an AFC Asian Cup for the first time.
The top FIFA-ranked team in their respective Pots, Japan (Pot 1) and 2007 winners Iraq (Pot 2) are set for an exciting showdown when they meet for only the third time in AFC Asian Cup™ history, the AFC said in a release on Friday.
Record four-time champions Japan got the better of Iraq in the quarterfinals in 2000 en route to winning their second Asian crown and this encounter on January 19 at the Education City Stadium might decide who finishes top of Group D.
Vietnam head coach Philippe Troussier, who led the Samurai Blue in that successful 2000 campaign, will also relish facing off against his former employers as he bids to orchestrate an upset with his current side on January 14 at the Al Thumama Stadium.
–IANS
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