The Indian men’s football team qualified for the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Asian Cup Finals after Palestine’s win over the Philippines in a Group B match played in Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday. This result meant that Palestine qualified directly for the 24 team finals as they finished at the top of the group, while the Philippines were eliminated despite finishing second on four points.
This is the first time that India has qualified for the Asian Cup for the second time in a row. He was dropped from the group league in 2019. Six groups of four teams each have been formed for the third round of qualifying. All the group matches are being organized at different venues. India is hosting the Group D matches.
Only the top team from the six qualifying groups will qualify directly. Apart from this, the second best team in their group also gets a chance to advance. India have six points in Group D and are second behind Hong Kong in goal difference. They qualified even before their last group match against Hong Kong.
Afghanistan and Cambodia have not opened their account in Group D and are already out. So, even if India loses to Hong Kong, they will still have more points than Group B runners-up Philippines (four points), thus qualifying as the best-of-five runners-up team.
India defeated Cambodia 2-0 in their first match on the back of two goals from captain Sunil Chhetri. They had registered a 2–1 win over Afghanistan in their second match. India has qualified for this continental competition for the fifth time overall (1964, 1984, 2011, 2021 and now 2023).