The national teams of Jordan, Taiwan and Bhutan were drawn as opponents of the Turkmenistan team following the draw for the 2026 AFC Asian Cup U23 qualifying tournament held today in the capital of Malaysia.
Before the draw, 44 teams were divided into five baskets in accordance with their final ranking, obtained on the basis of a points system based on their performance in the three previous Asian Cups.
Following the results of the penultimate 2022 AFC Asian Cup, where our team achieved a historic success - it reached the quarterfinals for the first time, Turkmenistan ended up in the second basket along with Kuwait, Iran, Malaysia, Bahrain, Palestine, Syria and Yemen. The teams that got into it were divided into 11 qualifying groups, the matches in which will be held from the 1st to 9th of September, 2025, centrally in 11 countries. Turkmenistan ended up in Group «A» with the national teams of Jordan, Taiwan and Bhutan. Games in this group will be held in the capital of Jordan, Amman.
The Turkmen footballers will play their first match on the 3rd of September against Taiwan, then play on the 6th of September against Bhutan, and finish the qualifying tournament on the 9th of September with a game against Jordan.
The lineups of the remaining qualifying groups:
«B»: Japan (two-time Asian champion), Kuwait, Myanmar (group host), Afghanistan;
«C»: Vietnam (group host), Yemen, Singapore, Bangladesh;
«D»: Australia, People's Republic of China (group host), East Timor, Northern Mariana Islands;
«E»: Uzbekistan (2018 Asian champion), Palestine, Kyrgyz Republic (group host), Sri Lanka;
«F»: Thailand (group host), Malaysia, Lebanon, Mongolia;
«G»: Iraq (first Asian Cup winner), Cambodia (group host), Oman, Pakistan;
«H»: Qatar (group host), Bahrain, India, Brunei;
«I»: UAE (group host), Iran, Hong Kong, Guam;
«J»: Korea Republic (2020 Asian Champions), Indonesia (group host), Laos, Macau;
«K»: Tajikistan (group host), Syria, Philippines, Nepal.
The group winners and the four best runners-up will qualify for the Asian Cup finals, which will be held from 7th to 25th January 2026 for the first time in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian U23 team, as the host, qualified directly for the final stage of the tournament.
Two teams will be making their debut in the current U23 Asian Cup, which is being held for the 7th time. This is the team of the Northern Mariana Islands, whose Football Federation is not a member of FIFA, as well as the youth team of Bhutan, whose Football Federation is a member of FIFA. At the same time, the DPRK team refused to participate in this tournament.
The winner of the previous Asian Cup-2024 was the Japanese team, which in the final of the tournament held in Qatar won against the team of Uzbekistan - 1:0.
