S'pore to face India, HK and Bangladesh in 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers
The Lions will fancy their chances of a maiden Asian Cup qualification after getting a kind draw for the third round of qualifiers, when they were pulled into Group C alongside India, Hong Kong and Bangladesh.
Only the group winners will qualify for the continental showpiece in Saudi Arabia in 2027.
World No. 161 Singapore will kick off their campaign with a home match against 156th-ranked Hong Kong on March 25, 2025, with the qualifiers set to run until March 2026.
While they played in the Asian Cup once – as hosts for the 1984 edition, when they were eliminated during the group stage – they have never qualified for it.
Six slots are up for grabs after the draw was held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 9, with the 24 teams that did not progress from the second round of the qualifiers separated into six groups.
They will each play six home-and-away matches in a round-robin format, with the six group winners joining the 18 teams that have already secured their spots for the Jan 15-Feb 8, 2027 event in Saudi Arabia.
For the draw, the Lions were the top-ranked team in the third of four pots. While they could have been grouped with an easier Pot 4 opponent than 185th-ranked Bangladesh, whom they beat once and drawn twice in their three past encounters, they had better luck with the higher-ranked seeds as they dodged big guns like Syria, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkmenistan.
World No. 127 India are the lowest-ranked team in Pot 1, and have beaten Singapore just four times in their 14 previous meetings.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong are the second-lowest ranked side in Pot 2, but have been hard to beat for the Lions, who last recorded a victory over them in 2012 and have won just five of their 25 encounters, most of which were tight affairs.
However, before Singapore set their sights on a historic qualification, they will have to focus on the Dec 8-Jan 5 Asean Championship, also known as the Asean Mitsubishi Electric Cup.
They kick off their Group A campaign at the National Stadium against Cambodia on Dec 11, before taking on Timor-Leste (away, Dec 14), Thailand (home, Dec 17) and Malaysia (away, Dec 20).
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