2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

The 2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs were played from 5 February to 13 March 2019.^[1] A total of 11 teams competed in the qualifying play-offs to decide four of the 36 places in the group stage of the 2019 AFC Cup.^[2]

Teams

The following 11 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.
5 teams entered in the play-off round.

Zone	Teams entering in play-off round	Teams entering in preliminary round
West Asia Zone	Al-Nasr Hilal Al-Quds
Central Asia Zone	Khujand	Ahal Alay
South Asia Zone	Chennaiyin	Transport United Colombo
ASEAN Zone	None
East Asia Zone	Tai Po	Ryomyong 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 four winners of the play-off round (one each from West Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, East Asia Zone) advanced to the group stage to join the 32 direct entrants.^[2]

Schedule

The schedule of each round was as follows.^[1]^[3]

Round	West Asia Zone		Central Asia Zone, South Asia Zone, East Asia Zone
Round	First leg	Second leg	First leg	Second leg
Preliminary round	Not played		20 February 2019	27 February 2019
Play-off round	5 February 2019	12 February 2019	6 March 2019	13 March 2019

Bracket

The bracket of the qualifying play-offs for each zone, determined based on the association ranking of each team, with the team from the higher-ranked association hosting the second leg, was officially announced by the AFC prior to the group stage draw on 22 November 2018.^[4]

Play-off West Asia

Hilal Al-Quds advanced to Group A.

Play-off round

Hilal Al-Quds	2	1	3

Al-Nasr	1	0	1

Play-off Central Asia

Khujand advanced to Group D.

Preliminary round				Play-off round

Alay	1	0	1

Ahal	2	1	3
				Ahal	1	0	1

				Khujand (a)	1	0	1

Play-off South Asia

Chennaiyin advanced to Group E.

Preliminary round				Play-off round

Colombo	7	2	9

Transport United	1	1	2
				Colombo	0	0	0

				Chennaiyin	0	1	1

Play-off East Asia

Tai Po advanced to Group I.

Preliminary round				Play-off round

Erchim	0	0	0

Ryomyong	3	3	6
				Ryomyong	0	0	0 (3)

				Tai Po (p)	0	0	0 (5)

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
Alay	1–3	Ahal	1–2	0–1

South Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Colombo	9–2	Transport United	7–1	2–1

East Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Erchim	0–6	Ryomyong	0–3	0–3

Central Asia Zone

20 February 2019

14:00 UTC+6

Alay	1–2	Ahal
Sardarbekov 36'	Report	Bäşimow 20', 38'

Suyumbayev Stadion, Osh

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Omar Al-Yaqoubi (Oman)

27 February 2019

18:00 UTC+5

Ahal	1–0	Alay
Gurbanow 35'	Report

Ashgabat Stadium, Ashgabat

Attendance: 10,500

Referee: Mohammed Al-Hoish (Saudi Arabia)

Ahal won 3–1 on aggregate.

South Asia Zone

20 February 2019

15:30 UTC+5:30

Colombo	7–1	Transport United
Aakib 5', 8', 11' Tagne 27', 76', 87' Rahuman 81'	Report	Lepcha 77'

Colombo Racecourse, Colombo

Attendance: 2,700

Referee: Hussein Abo Yehia (Lebanon)

27 February 2019

18:00 UTC+6

Transport United	1–2	Colombo
Dorji 45'	Report	Fasal 62' Addevu 82'

Changlimithang Stadium, Thimphu

Attendance: 826

Referee: Zhang Lei (China)

Colombo won 9–2 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

20 February 2019

14:00 UTC+8

Erchim	0–3	Ryomyong
	Report	Kim Song-min 12' (pen.) Ri Hun 19' Kim Kwang-jin 42'

MFF Football Centre, Ulaanbaatar

Attendance: 416

Referee: Yaqoub Al-Hammadi (United Arab Emirates)

27 February 2019

14:00 UTC+9

Ryomyong	3–0	Erchim
Kim Song-min 35', 77' Pak Chol-yong 70'	Report

Kim Il-sung Stadium, Pyongyang

Attendance: 2,000

Referee: Ahmad Yacoub Ibrahim (Jordan)

Ryomyong won 6–0 on aggregate.

Play-off round

Summary

A total of eight teams played in the play-off round: five 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	3–1	Al-Nasr	2–1	1–0

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

South Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Colombo	0–1	Chennaiyin	0–0	0–1

East Asia Zone
Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ryomyong	0–0 (3–5 p)	Tai Po	0–0	0–0 (a.e.t.)

West Asia Zone

5 February 2019

17:00 UTC+2

Hilal Al-Quds	2–1	Al-Nasr
Dabbagh 51' Farawi 54'	Report	Abdel-Halim 64'

Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, Al-Ram

Attendance: 3,150

Referee: Muhammad Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)

12 February 2019

19:30 UTC+4

Al-Nasr	0–1	Hilal Al-Quds
	Report	Dabbagh 74'

Salalah Sports Complex, Salalah

Attendance: 350

Referee: Ali Shaban (Kuwait)

Hilal Al-Quds won 3–1 on aggregate.

Central Asia Zone

6 March 2019

18:00 UTC+5

Ahal	1–1	Khujand
Durdyýew 29'	Report	J. Ergashev 11'

Ashgabat Stadium, Ashgabat

Attendance: 18,100

Referee: C. R. Srikrishna (India)

13 March 2019

14:00 UTC+5

Khujand	0–0	Ahal
	Report

20 Years of Independence Stadium, Khujand

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Sivakorn Pu-udom (Thailand)

1–1 on aggregate. Khujand won on away goals.

South Asia Zone

6 March 2019

15:30 UTC+5:30

Colombo	0–0	Chennaiyin
	Report

Colombo Racecourse, Colombo

Attendance: 2,850

Referee: Mohammad Arafah (Jordan)

13 March 2019

19:30 UTC+5:30

Chennaiyin	1–0	Colombo
Lalpekhlua 68'	Report

The Arena, Ahmedabad

Attendance: 2,842

Referee: Ammar Mahfoodh (Bahrain)

Chennaiyin won 1–0 on aggregate.

East Asia Zone

6 March 2019

16:00 UTC+9

Ryomyong	0–0	Tai Po
	Report

Kim Il-sung Stadium, Pyongyang

Attendance: 3,800

Referee: Payam Heidari (Iran)

13 March 2019

20:00 UTC+8

Tai Po	0–0 (a.e.t.)	Ryomyong
	Report
Penalties
Sartori João Emir Eduardo Sawyer Sandro	5–3	Jo Kwang-myong Ro Jong-hyok Pak Kwang-chon Pak Chol-yong

Mong Kok Stadium, Hong Kong

Attendance: 4,434

Referee: Sherzod Kasimov (Uzbekistan)

0–0 on aggregate. Tai Po won 5–3 on penalties.

Notes

References

^ ^a ^b "AFC Competitions Calendar 2019". AFC. 11 January 2018.
^ ^a ^b "2019 AFC Cup Competition Regulations" (PDF). AFC.
^ "AFC Cup 2019 Official Match Schedule". AFC.
^ "Draw unveils exciting 2019 challenge". AFC. 22 November 2018.

External links

AFC Cup, the-AFC.com
AFC Cup 2019, stats.the-AFC.com

[calendar-1] "AFC Competitions Calendar 2019". AFC. 11 January 2018.

[regulations-2] "2019 AFC Cup Competition Regulations" (PDF). AFC.

[fixtures-3] "AFC Cup 2019 Official Match Schedule". AFC.

[gs_draw-4] "Draw unveils exciting 2019 challenge". AFC. 22 November 2018.

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2019 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs

Teams

Format

Schedule

Bracket

Play-off West Asia

Play-off Central Asia

Play-off South Asia

Play-off East Asia

Preliminary round

Summary

Central Asia Zone

South Asia Zone

East Asia Zone

Play-off round

Summary

West Asia Zone

Central Asia Zone

South Asia Zone

East Asia Zone

Notes

References

External links

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