2022 AFC Cup group stage

The 2022 AFC Cup group stage was played from 18 May to 30 June 2022.^[1] A total of 39 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 12 places in the knockout stage of the 2022 AFC Cup.^[2]

The draw for the group stage was held on 17 January 2022 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 39 teams were drawn into nine groups of four and one group of three (in the Central Asia Zone): three groups each in the West Asia Zone (Groups A–C) and the ASEAN Zone (Groups G–I), two groups in the Central Asia Zone (Groups E–F), and one group each in the South Asia Zone (Group D) and the East Asia Zone (Group J). For each zone, teams were seeded into four pots and drawn into the relevant positions within each group, based on their association ranking and their seeding within their association, in consideration of technical balance between groups. Teams from the same association in zones with more than one group (West Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone, and ASEAN Zone) could not be drawn into the same group.

Zone	Groups	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
West Asia Zone	A–C	Al-Ansar	Al-Seeb	Jableh	Hilal Al-Quds
		Tishreen	Shabab Al-Khalil	East Riffa	Al-Arabi
		Al-Riffa	Nejmeh	Dhofar	Al-Kuwait
South Asia Zone	D	Gokulam Kerala	Bashundhara Kings	Maziya	Mohun Bagan SG (Winners of South Asia Play-off)
Central Asia Zone	E–F	Sogdiana Jizzakh (Nasaf Qarshi)[note 1]	Altyn Asyr	CSKA Pamir Dushanbe	Neftchi
		Khujand	Dordoi	Köpetdag	—
ASEAN Zone	G–I	Kaya F.C.–Iloilo	Hougang United	Phnom Penh Crown	Young Elephants ( Hantharwady United)[note 2]
		Viettel	Shan United[note 2]	Kedah Darul Aman	PSM Makassar
		Kuala Lumpur City	Bali United	Tampines Rovers	Visakha FC (Winners of ASEAN Play-off)[note 2]
East Asia Zone	J	Eastern	MUST CPK[note 3]	Tainan City	Lee Man (Winners of East Asia Play-off)

Standby teams^{[note 1]}

• Ayeyawady United (for Shan United)^{[note 2]}

In the group stage, each group is played on a single round-robin basis in centralised venues. The following teams will advance to the knockout stage:

• The winners of each group and the best runners-up in the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone advance to the Zonal semi-finals.
• The winners of each group in the Central Asia Zone advance to the Zonal finals.
• The winners of each group in the South Asia Zone and the East Asia Zone advance to the Inter-zone play-off semi-finals.

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 8.3):^[2]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams (Not applicable since matches will be played in centralised venues);
5. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams playing each other in the last round of the group are tied;
9. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
10. Association ranking;
11. Drawing of lots.

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

Matchday	Dates					Matches
	West	South	Central	ASEAN	East	Four-team groups	Three-team group
Matchday 1	18 May 2022		24 June 2022			1 v 4, 2 v 3	3 v 1
Matchday 2	21 May 2022		27 June 2022			4 v 2, 3 v 1	2 v 3
Matchday 3	24 May 2022		30 June 2022			1 v 2, 3 v 4	1 v 2

On 24 February 2022, AFC confirmed hosts for the group stage.^[6][7] on 25 April 2022, the Chinese Taipei Football Association withdrew from hosting the Group J matches.^[8] Later, on 5 May, Buriram were declared as the centralised venue to host the Group J matches.^[9]

• Group A: Muscat, Oman (Al-Seeb Stadium)
• Group B: Kuwait City, Kuwait (Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium)
• Group C: Arad, Bahrain (Al Muharraq Stadium)
• Group D: Kolkata, India (Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan)
• Group E: Dushanbe, Tajikistan (Pamir Stadium)
• Group F: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (Dolen Omurzakov Stadium)
• Group G: Gianyar, Indonesia (Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium)
• Group H: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur Stadium)
• Group I: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Thống Nhất Stadium)
• Group J: Buriram, Thailand (Buriram Stadium)

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SEB	KSC	JAB	ANS
1	Al-Seeb (H)	3	2	0	1	6	2	+4	6	Zonal semi-finals		—	—	1–0	—
2	Al-Kuwait	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5			2–1	—	—	—
3	Jableh	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4			—	0–0	—	1–0
4	Al-Ansar	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1			0–4	1–1	—	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		ARA	RIF	DHO	SAK
1	Al-Arabi (H)	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7	Zonal semi-finals		—	—	—	1–0
2	Al-Riffa	3	2	0	1	8	6	+2	6			2–3	—	—	3–1
3	Dhofar	3	1	1	1	6	4	+2	4			1–1	2–3	—	—
4	Shabab Al-Khalil	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0			—	—	0–3	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		EAR	TIS	NEJ	HAQ
1	East Riffa (H)	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5	Zonal semi-finals		—	2–0	—	2–2
2	Tishreen	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4[a]			—	—	3–1	0–0
3	Nejmeh	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4[a]			1–1	—	—	—
4	Hilal Al-Quds	3	0	2	1	2	4	−2	2			—	—	0–2	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		MBSG	BSK	MAZ	GOK
1	Mohun Bagan SG (H)	3	2	0	1	11	6	+5	6[a]	Inter-zone play-off semi-finals		—	4–0	—	—
2	Bashundhara Kings	3	2	0	1	3	5	−2	6[a]			—	—	1–0	—
3	Maziya	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3[b]			2–5	—	—	1–0
4	Gokulam Kerala	3	1	0	2	5	5	0	3[b]			4–2	1–2	—	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		SOG	ALT	CPD	NEF
1	Sogdiana Jizzakh	3	3	0	0	8	3	+5	9	Zonal finals		—	3–1	—	2–0
2	Altyn Asyr	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4			—	—	1–1	—
3	CSKA Pamir Dushanbe (H)	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2			2–3	—	—	0–0
4	Neftchi	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1			—	0–1	—	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KHU	KPD	DOR
1	Khujand	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4	Zonal finals		—	—	0–0
2	Köpetdag	2	1	0	1	2	3	−1	3			1–3	—	—
3	Dordoi (H)	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1			—	0–1	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		KED	VIS	BAL	KAY
1	Kedah Darul Aman	3	2	0	1	9	4	+5	6[a]	Zonal semi-finals		—	5–1	—	4–1
2	Visakha FC	3	2	0	1	8	8	0	6[a]			—	—	5–2	—
3	Bali United (H)	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	6[a]			2–0	—	—	—
4	Kaya F.C.–Iloilo	3	0	0	3	2	7	−5	0			—	1–2	0–1	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PSM	KLC	TAM
1	PSM Makassar	2	1	1	0	3	1	+2	4[a]	Zonal semi-finals		—	0–0	—
2	Kuala Lumpur City (H)	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4[a]			—	—	2–1
3	Tampines Rovers	2	0	0	2	2	5	−3	0			1–3	—	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		VIE	HOU	PPC	YEL
1	Viettel (H)	3	3	0	0	11	3	+8	9	Zonal semi-finals		—	5–2	—	5–1
2	Hougang United	3	2	0	1	9	9	0	6			—	—	4–3	—
3	Phnom Penh Crown	3	1	0	2	7	7	0	3			0–1	—	—	4–2
4	Young Elephants	3	0	0	3	4	12	−8	0			—	1–3	—	—

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		EAS	LEE	TNC	CPK
1	Eastern	2	2	0	0	6	2	+4	6	Inter-zone play-off semi-finals		—	—	3–1	Canc.
2	Lee Man	2	1	0	1	4	4	0	3			1–3	—	—	Canc.
3	Tainan City	2	0	0	2	2	6	−4	0			—	1–3	—	—
4	MUST CPK	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew[10]		—	—	Canc.	—

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Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	Al-Riffa	3	2	0	1	8	6	+2	6	Zonal semi-finals
2	A	Al-Kuwait	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
3	C	Tishreen	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4

Since Group H only had three teams, the results against fourth-placed teams in Groups G and I were omitted for this ranking.

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	H	Kuala Lumpur City	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4	Zonal semi-finals
2	G	Visakha FC	2	1	0	1	6	7	−1	3
3	I	Hougang United	2	1	0	1	6	8	−2	3

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