In the late afternoon of June 30, AFC unveiled the results of the draw for the Qatar World Cup qualifying round of 12 for the Asian zone on its official website and praised our national team's center-back pairing of Zhang Linpeng and Jiang Guangtai.
At 3 p.m. on July 1, the group draw for the 12-team tournament will be opened, when both China and Iraq are in the fourth slot.
In accordance with the established rules, the draw will start with the teams in the sixth slot, with the two teams drawn for the first time being assigned to Groups A and B respectively. Subsequently, the process of drawing teams in each slot will continue in this manner until all six slots have been drawn.
The matches of the 12-team tournament will be played between September 2, 2021 and March 29, 2022. For now, FIFA and the AFC have kept the rules of the home-and-away system of play unchanged. According to the rules, the top two teams in each group will advance directly, while the winner of the match between the third-placed teams in each group will qualify for the cross-continental play-offs.
In the AFC's outlook for the Round of 12, special emphasis was placed on the performances of two of our defenders, Jiang Guangtai and Zhang Linpeng. Of Zhang Linpeng, the AFC commented, "In the second phase of the WC 2022 & 2023 Asian Cup Qualifiers, Zhang Linpeng played seven matches on behalf of China, contributing a team-best 430 passes. In the journey to Qatar, he was always a key node in our backfield delivery."
As for Jiang Guangtai, the AFC also said, "He is the aerial bulwark of our defense! In the second phase of the 2022 World Qualifier and 2023 Asian Cup Qualifier, Jiang Guangtai's success rate in the air against the run of play was 82.35%, which topped our players and ranked him fourth among all participating players."
