Jordan, Chinese Taipei and Bhutan were drawn as opponents of the Turkmenistan following the draw for the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 Qualifiers held in the capital of Malaysia, The Turkmenistan: Golden age electronic newspaper reports.
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, Chinese Taipei 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 Chinese Taipei, 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 (host), Afghanistan;
«C»: Vietnam (host), Yemen, Singapore, Bangladesh;
«D»: Australia, People's Republic of China (host), East Timor, Northern Mariana Islands;
«E»: Uzbekistan (2018 Asian champion), Palestine, Kyrgyz Republic (host), Sri Lanka;
«F»: Thailand (host), Malaysia, Lebanon, Mongolia;
«G»: Iraq (first Asian Cup winner), Cambodia (host), Oman, Pakistan;
«H»: Qatar (host), Bahrain, India, Brunei;
«I»: UAE (host), Iran, Hong Kong, Guam;
«J»: Korea Republic (2020 Asian Champions), Indonesia (host), Laos, Macau;
«K»: Tajikistan (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.
