The fate of the group for the 2022 Women's Asian Cup in India was revealed at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 28, BST. China's women's soccer team was fortunate to be placed in Group A, playing with the Indian hosts, Chinese Taipei and Iran. It is worth mentioning that our women's football team managed to bypass the winners and runners-up of the last Asian Cup - Japan and Australia - and will play their first match on January 20, 2022 against Chinese Taipei.
The grouping results are detailed in the figure:
Group A: India, China, Chinese Taipei, Iran
Group B: Australia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia
Group C: Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar
The draw ceremony for this year's Asian Cup was held in a live online broadcast despite the impact of the epidemic. AFC Secretary General Windsor John and Indian Football Association (IFA) President Patel spoke in front of the video. The rules and process were explained in detail before the official draw. The draw started with the fourth-ranked teams, followed by the third-ranked, second-ranked and finally the first-ranked. In the end, our women's soccer team was placed in the same group with India, Chinese Taipei and Iran, successfully avoiding the previous champion and runner-up, which was considered a pretty good signing sheet.
Based on the results of the final round of the 2018 Asian Cup and this qualifier, the 12 teams have been divided into four slots, with hosts India seeded along with last year's winners and runners-up, Japan and Australia; and our women's football team, along with Thailand and South Korea Women's Football Teams, as the second slot teams. The specific classification is as follows:
Top slot: India, Japan, Australia
Second gear: our team, Thailand, South Korea
Tier 3: Philippines, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei
Tranche 4: Myanmar, Iran, Indonesia
The draw follows the principle of different groups for teams in the same bracket, and our women's soccer team will not be grouped with Thailand and South Korea in the same bracket. According to the rules of the tournament, the 12 finalists will be divided into three groups, with the top two teams from each group and the third place of the two groups with the best results advancing to the knockout rounds.
The country's women's soccer team will be making its 15th appearance in the final round of the Asian Cup, having won the title eight times, but most recently in 2006. The last two tournaments ended in third place. The country's women's soccer team has not yet decided on a head coach. After the poor performance in the Tokyo Olympics, former head coach Jia Xiuquan left the team, and after returning to China, the women's soccer team played as a joint Olympic team in the Shaanxi National Games, and was led by Shanghai women's soccer head coach Shui Junxia to win the championship. Since then, the women's soccer team has begun to openly recruit the head coach, but so far there is still no finalization.
The 2022 Asian Cup will be played from January 20 to February 6, 2023 in Mumbai, New Mumbai and Pune, India, with the Japanese women's football team participating as defending champions. The results of this year's Asian Cup will also affect the final round berths for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The AFC will get 5+1 (hosts Australia) places as the 2023 World Cup final round will be expanded to 32 teams.
Our women's soccer team schedule for the group stage is as follows:
January 20, 2022 China Women's Football Team vs. China Taipei Women's Football Team
January 23, 2022 China Women's Football Team vs. Iran Women's Football Team
January 26, 2022 Our Women's Football Team vs India Women's Football Team
