Road to the Finals

The AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ will feature 16 of the best teams in Asia, vying for a truly international title from January 7-29 next year. The teams took different paths to the Finals with six of them, including hosts Qatar, not taking part in the qualifiers. Ten sides took the qualifying route, thrilling millions of fans across the world.
Three teams - AFC Asian Cup 2007 champions Iraq, runners-up Saudi Arabia and third-place finishers Korea Republic - got direct entry into the 2011 Finals. India and DPR Korea qualified by virtue of winning the second-tier AFC national team competition, the AFC Challenge Cup, in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Ten teams worked their way through a maze of qualifiers spread over 15 months. Read below how the teams navigated the choppy waters to put themselves within reach of a prized title.

QUALIFIED TEAMS FOR AFC ASIAN CUP QATAR 2011™ FINALS

Direct bye to the Finals Iraq Saudi Arabia Korea Republic India DPR Korea Qatar (host) Eligible through qualifying Australia Uzbekistan Japan Bahrain Kuwait UAE Syria China PR IR Iran Jordan