2018 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

Asia football competition

The 2018 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs were played from 22 January to 20 February 2018. A total of 13 teams competed in the qualifying play-offs to decide five of the 36 places in the group stage of the 2018 AFC Cup.

Teams

The following 13 teams, split into five zones (West Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, ASEAN Zone, East Asia Zone), entered the qualifying play-offs, consisting of two rounds:

6 teams entered in the preliminary round.
7 teams entered in the play-off round.

Zone	Teams entering in play-off round	Teams entering in preliminary round
West Asia Zone	Al-Suwaiq Hilal Al-Quds
Central Asia Zone	Khujand	Ahal Dordoi
South Asia Zone		Bengaluru TC Sports Saif Transport United
ASEAN Zone	Lao Toyota Boeung Ket Angkor
East Asia Zone	Hwaebul Erchim

Format

In the qualifying play-offs, each tie was played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The away goals rule, extra time (away goals do not apply in extra time) and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 9.3). The five winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 31 direct entrants.

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows (W: West Asia Zone; C: Central Asia Zone; S: South Asia Zone; A: ASEAN Zone; E: East Asia Zone).

Round	W		A		C, S, E
Round	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	Not played				23 January 2018	30 January 2018
Play-off round	22 January 2018	29 January 2018	29 January 2018	2 February 2018	13 February 2018	20 February 2018

Bracket

The bracket of the qualifying play-offs for each zone was determined by the AFC based on the association ranking of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the second leg.

Play-off West Asia

Al-Suwaiq advanced to Group A.

Play-off round

Hilal Al-Quds	0	1	1

Al-Suwaiq	1	1	2

Play-off Central Asia

Ahal advanced to Group D.

Preliminary round				Play-off round

Dordoi	1	2	3

Ahal	3	2	5
				Ahal	1	2	3

				Khujand	0	0	0

Play-off South Asia

Bengaluru advanced to Group E.

Preliminary round				Play-off round

Saif	0	1	1

TC Sports	1	3	4
				TC Sports	2	0	2

				Bengaluru	3	5	8
Transport United	0	0	0

Bengaluru	0	3	3

Play-off ASEAN

Boeung Ket Angkor advanced to Group F.

Play-off round

Boeung Ket Angkor	3	1	4

Lao Toyota	3	0	3

Play-off East Asia

Hwaebul advanced to Group I.

Play-off round

Erchim	0	0	0

Hwaebul	4	3	7

Preliminary round

Summary

A total of six teams played in the preliminary round.

Central Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Dordoi	3–5	Ahal	1–3	2–2

South Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Transport United	0–3	Bengaluru	0–0	0–3
Saif	1–4	TC Sports	0–1	1–3

Central Asia Zone

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)15:00 UTC+6

Dordoi	1–3	Ahal
Zhyrgalbek Uulu 19'	Stats Report	Muhadow 1' Annaýew 75', 86'

Dordoi Stadium, BishkekAttendance: 1,000Referee: Hussein Abo Yehia (Lebanon) 30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)15:00 UTC+5

Ahal	2–2	Dordoi
Hajyýew 39' (pen.) Muhadow 88'	Stats Report	Gurbani 58', 69'

Sport Toplumy Stadium, BalkanabatAttendance: 6,670Referee: Khamis Al-Kuwari (Qatar)

Ahal won 5–3 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)18:00 UTC+6

Transport United	0–0	Bengaluru
	Stats Report

Changlimithang Stadium, ThimphuAttendance: 3,100Referee: Sivakorn Pu-udom (Thailand) 30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)20:00 UTC+5:30

Bengaluru	3–0	Transport United
B. Haokip 27' Lalhlimpuia 54' T. Haokip 62'	Stats Report

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, BangaloreAttendance: 1,167Referee: Mooud Bonyadifar (Iran)

Bengaluru won 3–0 on aggregate.

23 January 2018 (2018-01-23)15:00 UTC+6

Saif	0–1	TC Sports
	Stats Report	Vlasichev 26'

Bangabandhu National Stadium, DhakaAttendance: 7,000Referee: Yaqoob Abdul Baki (Oman) 30 January 2018 (2018-01-30)21:00 UTC+5

TC Sports	3–1	Saif
Vlasichev 23', 84' (pen.), 88'	Stats Report	Chigozie 33'

Rasmee Dhandu Stadium, MaléAttendance: 4,000Referee: Çarymyrat Kurbanow (Turkmenistan)

TC Sports won 4–1 on aggregate.

Play-off round

Summary

A total of 10 teams played in the play-off round: seven teams which entered in this round, and three winners of the preliminary round.

West Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Hilal Al-Quds	1–2	Al-Suwaiq	0–1	1–1

Central Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ahal	3–0	Khujand	1–0	2–0

South Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
TC Sports	2–8	Bengaluru	2–3	0–5

ASEAN Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Boeung Ket Angkor	4–3	Lao Toyota	3–3	1–0

East Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Erchim	0–7	Hwaebul	0–4	0–3

West Asia Zone

22 January 2018 (2018-01-22)17:00 UTC+2

Hilal Al-Quds	0–1	Al-Suwaiq
	Stats Report	Al-Busaidi 26'

Arab American University Stadium, JeninAttendance: 1,450Referee: Dmitry Mashentsev (Kyrgyzstan) 29 January 2018 (2018-01-29)19:00 UTC+4

Al-Suwaiq	1–1	Hilal Al-Quds
Al-Muqbali 69'	Stats Report	Yameen 19'

Al-Seeb Stadium, SeebAttendance: 4,300Referee: Hanna Hattab (Syria)

Al-Suwaiq won 2–1 on aggregate.

Central Asia Zone

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)15:00 UTC+5

Ahal	1–0	Khujand
Annaýew 18' (pen.)	Stats Report

Sport Toplumy Stadium, BalkanabatAttendance: 9,300Referee: Ahmed Al-Ali (Jordan) 20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)14:00 UTC+5

Khujand	0–2	Ahal
	Stats Report	Ylýasow 49' Muhadow 52'

20 Years of Independence Stadium, KhujandAttendance: 25,000Referee: Nivon Robesh Gamini (Sri Lanka)

Ahal won 3–0 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)21:00 UTC+5

TC Sports	2–3	Bengaluru
Vlasichev 71' Mahudhee 73'	Stats Report	T. Haokip 51', 78' Paartalu 69'

Rasmee Dhandu Stadium, MaléAttendance: 890Referee: Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan) 20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)20:00 UTC+5:30

Bengaluru	5–0	TC Sports
Dovale 12', 35', 48' Paartalu 36' Bheke 90+1'	Stats Report

Sree Kanteerava Stadium, BangaloreAttendance: 1,473Referee: Turki Al-Khudhayr (Saudi Arabia)

Bengaluru won 8–2 on aggregate.

ASEAN Zone

29 January 2018 (2018-01-29)18:30 UTC+7

Boeung Ket Angkor	3–3	Lao Toyota
Maycon 6' (pen.), 53' Laboravy 60'	Stats Report	Honma 30', 87' Pooda 79'

Olympic Stadium, Phnom PenhAttendance: 1,778Referee: Yu Ming-hsun (Chinese Taipei) 2 February 2018 (2018-02-02)18:00 UTC+7

Lao Toyota	0–1	Boeung Ket Angkor
	Stats Report	Laboravy 61'

New Laos National Stadium, VientianeAttendance: 450Referee: Nagor Amir Noor Mohamed (Malaysia)

Boeung Ket Angkor won 4–3 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

13 February 2018 (2018-02-13)14:00 UTC+8

Erchim	0–4	Hwaebul
	Stats Report	Ri Chang-ho 9', 90' Ri Song 41' Ri Il-san 85'

MFF Football Centre, UlaanbaatarAttendance: 335Referee: Pranjal Banerjee (India) 20 February 2018 (2018-02-20)15:00 UTC+8:30

Hwaebul	3–0	Erchim
Jang Kuk-chol 27' Choe Kwang-jin 41' Jon Chung-il 45+1'	Stats Report

Kim Il-sung Stadium, PyongyangAttendance: 31,010Referee: Jansen Foo (Singapore)

Hwaebul won 7–0 on aggregate.

Notes

^ The identity of the play-off teams from Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia was not known at the time of the group stage draw.
On 14 December 2017, the AFC announced that Lao Toyota, the play-off team from Laos, were ruled ineligible to play in the 2018 AFC Cup due to match manipulation during the 2015 and 2016 AFC Cup. Lao Toyota appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and on 17 January 2018, CAS ruled Lao Toyota would be eligible to participate.

References

^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2018". AFC. 11 January 2018.
^ "2018 AFC Cup Competition Regulations" (PDF). AFC.
"Lao Toyota FC ineligible for AFC Cup 2018 because of match manipulation". AFC. 14 December 2017.
"The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) declares Lao Tractor Football Club eligible to participate in the 2018 AFC Cup" (PDF). CAS. 17 January 2018.
"AFC Cup 2018 draw confirmed". AFC. 6 December 2017.

External links

AFC Cup, the-AFC.com
AFC Cup 2018, stats.the-AFC.com

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