# 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification

The 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification saw various countries take part to determine 10 spots to the final tournament in Qatar under the new qualification system set by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Six other teams also qualified for the finals, even though they did not take part in the qualifiers:
* The host nation: Qatar;
* The top three finishers in the 2007 tournament: Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic;
* The winner of the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup: India;
* The winner of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup: Korea DPR.

## Qualified teams

| Country | Qualified as | Date qualification was secured | Previous appearances in tournament |
| Qatar | Hosts | 29 July 2007 | 7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| Iraq | 2007 AFC Asian Cup winner | 25 July 2007 | 6 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| Saudi Arabia | 2007 AFC Asian Cup runner-up | 25 July 2007 | 7 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| South Korea | 2007 AFC Asian Cup third place | 28 July 2007 | 11 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| India | 2008 AFC Challenge Cup winner | 13 August 2008 | 2 (1964, 1984) |
| Uzbekistan | Group C runner-up | 18 November 2009 | 4 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| Syria | Group D winner | 18 November 2009 | 4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996) |
| Iran | Group E winner | 6 January 2010 | 11 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| China | Group D runner-up | 6 January 2010 | 9 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| Japan | Group A winner | 6 January 2010 | 6 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) |
| Bahrain | Group A runner-up | 6 January 2010 | 3 (1988, 2004, 2007) |
| United Arab Emirates | Group C winner | 6 January 2010 | 7 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007) |
| North Korea | 2010 AFC Challenge Cup winner | 27 February 2010 | 2 (1980, 1992) |
| Australia | Group B winner | 3 March 2010 | 1 (2007) |
| Kuwait | Group B runner-up | 3 March 2010 | 8 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004) |
| Jordan | Group E runner-up | 3 March 2010 | 1 (2004) |
Notes:
    $^1$ Bold indicates champion for that year
    $^2$ Italic indicates host

## Seedings

On 6 December 2007 the Asian Football Confederation announced the seeding for the preliminary round of the 2011 tournament:
| Automatic Qualifiers | Other Teams |
| Iraq Saudi Arabia South Korea | Japan Australia Iran Uzbekistan Vietnam China Thailand Indonesia United Arab Emirates Bahrain Oman Malaysia Jordan Syria Hong Kong Yemen Kuwait Singapore India** Lebanon North Korea* Myanmar* Maldives*** Turkmenistan* |
* Teams marked '*' withdrew prior to the draw. All of them participated in the 2008 and 2010 AFC Challenge Cup, and therefore had a chance to qualify via those two tournaments.
* India (marked '**') were drawn into Group C of the qualifiers, but withdrew from the qualifiers following their victory in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup which automatically qualified them for the final tournament.
* Maldives (marked '***') were the only other team that entered the Asian Cup qualifiers who could also qualify via the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup, but they were eliminated from the Asian Cup qualifiers before the group stage.
* The following teams did not enter main qualification, but could qualify via the AFC Challenge Cups if they chose to enter:
* Afghanistan
* Bangladesh
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* Chinese Taipei
* Guam
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Macau
* Mongolia
* Nepal
* Pakistan
* Palestine
* Philippines
* Sri Lanka
* Tajikistan
* Timor-Leste

## Preliminary round

The preliminary round reduced the number of non-automatic qualifiers to 20. Following the withdrawals of Korea DPR, Myanmar and Turkmenistan, only two teams were involved. The two lowest ranked AFC teams, Lebanon and Maldives, played home-and-away matches in April 2008. The away goals rule would be applied, and extra time and penalty shootout would be used to decide the winner if necessary. The winner of the preliminary round advanced to the qualifying round, where it was joined by the 19 teams seeded 4th to 22nd.
| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Lebanon | 6–1 | Maldives | 4–0 | 2–1 |
Lebanon won 6–1 on aggregate and advanced to the group stage.

## Qualifying round

The 20 teams were divided into five groups of four. Teams played each other home and way in a round-robin format. The top two in each group advanced to the 2011 tournament where they were joined by the other qualifiers — Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India and North Korea.

### Seedings

The following teams were drawn at this round:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Japan  Australia  Iran  Uzbekistan  Vietnam | China  Thailand  Indonesia  United Arab Emirates  Bahrain | Oman  Jordan  Syria  Malaysia  Hong Kong | Yemen  Kuwait  Singapore  India  Lebanon |

### Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:
* Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Goal difference in all the group matches;
* Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
* Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
* Drawing of lots.

## Group A

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | | | |
| Japan | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 4 | +13 | 15 | — | 2–0 | 2–1 | 6–0 |
| Bahrain | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 12 | 1–0 | — | 4–0 | 4–0 |
| Yemen | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | −2 | 7 | 2–3 | 3–0 | — | 1–0 |
| Hong Kong | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 18 | −17 | 1 | 0–4 | 1–3 | 0–0 | — |

## Group B

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | | | |
| Australia | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 11 | — | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Kuwait | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 9 | 2–2 | — | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| Oman | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 1–2 | 0–0 | — | 0–0 |
| Indonesia | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | — |

## Group C

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | | |
| United Arab Emirates | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 9 | — | 0–1 | 1–0 |
| Uzbekistan | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 9 | 0–1 | — | 3–1 |
| Malaysia | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 12 | −10 | 0 | 0–5 | 1–3 | — |
Following their victory in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, India was given a bye to the final tournament and removed from this group prior to the first match. They were not replaced.

## Group D

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | | | |
| Syria | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 2 | +8 | 14 | — | 3–2 | 0–0 | 4–0 |
| China | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 5 | +8 | 13 | 0–0 | — | 6–1 | 1–0 |
| Vietnam | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 5 | 0–1 | 1–2 | — | 3–1 |
| Lebanon | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 13 | −11 | 1 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–1 | — |

## Group E

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | | | | |
| Iran | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 2 | +9 | 13 | — | 1–0 | 1–0 | 6–0 |
| Jordan | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 1–0 | — | 0–0 | 2–1 |
| Thailand | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0–0 | 0–0 | — | 0–1 |
| Singapore | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 15 | −9 | 6 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 1–3 | — |

## Goalscorers
### 6 goals

* Shinji Okazaki

### 5 goals

* Ismael Abdullatif

### 3 goals

* Gao Lin
* Sōta Hirayama
* Noh Alam Shah

### 2 goals

* Luke Wilkshire
* Salman Isa
* Abdulla Baba Fatadi
* Qu Bo
* Du Wei
* Mohammad Nouri
* Gholamreza Rezaei
* Javad Nekounam
* Bader Al-Mutawa
* Mahmoud El Ali
* Maher Al Sayed
* Firas Al Khatib
* Jehad Al Hussein
* Sutee Suksomkit
* Mohamed Omer
* Ismail Matar
* Ahmad Khalil
* Alexander Geynrikh
* Nguyễn Vũ Phong
* Lê Công Vinh
* Zaher Farid Al-Fadhli
* Ali Al Nono

### 1 goal

* Tim Cahill
* Dean Heffernan
* Brett Emerton
* Mark Milligan
* Hussain Salman
* Sayed Mohamed Adnan
* Hao Junmin
* Jiang Ning
* Liu Jian
* Yu Hai
* Yang Xu
* Zhang Linpeng
* Cheng Siu Wai
* Bambang Pamungkas
* Boaz Solossa
* Budi Sudarsono
* Majid Gholamnejad
* Karim Bagheri
* Maziar Zare
* Hadi Aghili
* Mehrzad Madanchi
* Yuji Nakazawa
* Marcus Túlio Tanaka
* Yuto Nagatomo
* Tatsuya Tanaka
* Makoto Hasebe
* Shunsuke Nakamura
* Hisato Satō
* Keisuke Honda
* Hatem Aqel
* Amer Deeb
* Odai Al-Saify
* Anas Bani Yaseen
* Musaed Neda
* Ahmad Ajab
* Fayez Bandar
* Yousef Nasser
* Nasrat Al Jamal
* Akram Moghrabi
* Ali Yaacoub
* Abbas Ahmed Atwi
* Mohammed Ghaddar
* Mohamad Korhani
* Mohd Zaquan Adha
* Baddrol Bakhtiar
* Shamweel Qasim
* Khalifa Ayil
* Hassan Rabia
* Fawzi Bashir
* Ismail Sulaiman
* Agu Casmir
* Mustafic Fahrudin
* Aleksandar Đurić
* Abdelrazaq Al Hussain
* Raja Rafe
* Mohamed Al Zeno
* Abdul Fattah Al Agha
* Therdsak Chaiman
* Sultan Bargash
* Farhod Tadjiyev
* Server Djeparov
* Anvar Gafurov
* Bahodir Nasimov
* Timur Kapadze
* Nguyễn Minh Phương
* Phạm Thành Lương
* Sami Abbod
* Akram Al Selwi
* Mohammed Al Abidi

### Own goal

* Aref Thabit Al-Dali (1) (playing against Bahrain)