In the late afternoon of June 30, AFC unveiled the draw for the Qatar World Cup Asian Zone 12 tournament via its official website and gave notable recognition to the national soccer team's center back pairing of Zhang Linpeng and Jiang Guangtai.
The draw will kick off at 3 p.m. on July 1, when China will be in the 4th slot alongside Iraq.
As a rule, the draw will start with the 6th slot teams, and the two balls drawn for the first time will go to Groups A and B respectively. And so on until all 6 slots have been drawn.
This 12-team tournament will take place from September 2, 2021 to March 29, 2022. As of now, FIFA and the AFC continue to adhere to the home-and-away system. According to the rules, the top two teams in each group will advance directly, while the winner between the third-placed teams in each group will win a cross-continental playoff.
In its official website's outlook for the 12-team tournament, the AFC made special mention of China's two defenders, Jiang Guangtai and Zhang Linpeng. In response to Zhang Linpeng, the AFC commented, "In the second phase of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Zhang Linpeng played seven matches for China, delivering a team-best 430 passes. He was consistently a key outlet at the back during the journey to Qatar."
As for Jiang Guangtai, the AFC was equally high: "He is the bulwark of our country's air defense! In the second phase of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Jiang Guangtai's aerial confrontation success rate of 82.35% topped China's team and ranked fourth among all participating players."
