In the fourth round of the second stage of the group in the Asian region of the World Preliminaries, most of the nine seeded teams won smoothly, only Saudi Arabia was upset and drawn; the second pot team was mixed, the national football team won by 4 goals and the qualifying situation was clear, Kyrgyzstan rose to the top of the group, Uzbekistan qualified ahead of schedule, Vietnam and India lost in this round and the promotion situation was in jeopardy; the overall performance of the third pot team was average, only Tajikistan drew with Saudi Arabia. There were bright spots in Pot 4, with Indonesia and Afghanistan both upsetting Pot 2 teams Vietnam and India.
The biggest surprise in Group A was Afghanistan, who knocked out a goal in the case of a foul and a goal, and through Akbari's push and Sharif's stunner penalty, they overturned India away with a score of 2-1, and played a record of 1 win and 1 draw against the second-tier team India in the two rounds. The other was a 2-1 win over Kuwait by seeded Qatar. At the end of this round, India is in second place with 4 points, Afghanistan is in 3rd place with 4 points, Kuwait is at the bottom with 3 points, and it is also the 4th place with the highest points in the 9 groups.
Group B saw the only team to advance from the round of 36 lying down. Due to the cancellation of this round of the away match against North Korea, Japan won 3-0 without a match, and thus easily advanced to the next round with a record of 4 wins. Syria finished second in the group with seven points after beating Myanmar 7-0 and are in sight of qualifying. North Korea, which has 3 points, has two home games behind it, and there is a high probability that they will be cancelled, and it is only a matter of time before they are out with Myanmar.
The situation in Group C became clear with a big win for the national football team, with Wu Lei's two goals and assists in the second half, Fernando scored his first goal for the national team, Wei Shihao scored in stoppage time to add the icing on the cake, and the national football team defeated Singapore 4-1 to get all three points, however, Li Yuan received a red card in one game, and Wu Lei was suspended in the next round due to the accumulation of yellow cards, which added a lot of suspense to the fifth round of the battle with Thailand. South Korea defeated Thailand 3-0 with goals from Lee Jae-seong, Son Heung-min and Park Jin-sub, and topped the table with 10 points. The national football team surpassed Thailand by 3 points and temporarily ranked second, as long as it defeated Thailand at home in the next round, it could steadily advance to the round of 18. Thailand is temporarily in third place, and if they beat the national football team in the next round, they can still grasp the initiative to qualify. Singapore only scored 1 point in 4 games and was basically declared out.
With Oman's 2-0 defeat of Malaysia in this round and Kyrgyzstan's 5-1 victory over Chinese Taipei, there was a situation where the two teams had 9 points, the second pot team Kyrgyzstan temporarily topped the list with the advantage of goals scored, the seeded team Oman temporarily ranked second with fewer goals, Malaysia ranked third with a goal difference of -2, and Chinese Taipei was out of the tournament with 0 points.
In Group E, Iran beat Turkmenistan 1-0 thanks to Kahibi's counter-attacking volley before half-time. After winning 2-0 in the previous round, Uzbekistan beat Hong Kong 3-0 at home in this round. In this way, Iran and Uzbekistan have 10 points and qualify two rounds in advance, which also makes the battle for the top spot in the group the biggest attraction of this group. Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, China exited two rounds early.
Group F was the most exciting group with a series of upsets. After winning 1-0 at home in the previous round, Indonesia beat Vietnam 3-0 away in this round to complete the double. Iraq, the strongest team in this group, showed no mercy in the face of the Philippines, Ayman scored a brace, Iqbal, Amari and Zeid scored respectively, won 5-0, and qualified two rounds ahead of schedule with a record of four wins. Indonesia has 7 points from 4 rounds and the situation is very favorable. Vietnam, which has lost consecutive games, only has 3 points and is in jeopardy. There is no suspense that the Philippines will be out.
Group G still does not have a team that has advanced early. Saudi Arabia lost a good game against Tajikistan in this round, and Tajikistan withstood the pressure in the first half and exchanged blanks with Saudi Arabia. However, a blitzkrieg from Firas gave Saudi Arabia the lead in the opening minute of the second half, and a tenacious Tajikistan scored in the 81st minute through a slotted tackle by Soylov in front of the goal to draw 1-1 with Saudi Arabia. In the other game, Jordan beat Pakistan 7-0. After four rounds, Saudi Arabia continues to lead with 10 points, and it is only a matter of time before they qualify. Jordan is second with seven points, Tajikistan is third with five points, and Pakistan is not competitive to be out of the tournament two rounds early.
Group H is the most distinct group. With the UAE beating Yemen 3-0 and Bahrain beating Nepal 3-0 in this round, the seeded team UAE has 12 points to qualify two rounds ahead of schedule, Bahrain is ranked second with 9 points, and one more point in the last two rounds can qualify. Yemen and Bahrain are six points apart, and there is still a theoretical possibility of qualifying, but it is difficult to create a miracle. Nepal lost all 4 games and went out early.
There is not much suspense in Group I. Australia were dominant, with Goodwin scoring twice and own-goals as Yanji and Al Der scored to beat Lebanon 5-0. Palestine narrowly beat Bangladesh 1-0 thanks to Termanini's stoppage-time winner. As a result, Australia won all 4 games and ranked first in the group ahead of schedule, while Palestine ranked 2nd with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss with 7 points, 5 points ahead of Lebanon in 3rd place, and the promotion situation is clear. Lebanon and Bangladesh are unlikely to make the cut.
The teams that advanced to the round of 18 two rounds ahead of schedule: Iran, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Qatar.
Teams that went out early: Turkmenistan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Nepal, Pakistan.