Pakistan has been drawn to face SAFF rivals Bangladesh in Round 1 of the Asian qualifiers for 2014 FIFA World Cup in the draw ceremony conducted at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Bangladesh will likely host the 1st leg on the allotted match-day of 29-30 June 2011 with Pakistan holding the return leg on 3-4 July 2011.
Also decided were the Round 2 qualifiers. The winner of Pakistan-Bangladesh match will face Lebanon in home-away tie with Lebanon hosting the 1st leg on 23 July 2011 and the other team hosting 2nd leg on 28 July 2011 for Round 2.
Other draw results can be found here: http://www.the-afc.com/draw/fwc/index.htm
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(AFC)
PFF Media Cell adds:
Pakistan will open their mission in 20th World Football Cup campaign when they will take on Bangladesh in Asian qualifiers. The journey of Pakistan to represent Asia at the coming World Cup finals in Brazil will commence with two legged encounter on 29 June and 3 July 2011. It will be first meeting between two nations since 2009 when a goalless draw was recorded during 8th SAFF Championship on 6 December 2009 at Dhaka’s Bangabandhu National Stadium.
The World Cup will feature 32 teams. One place has been allocated to the hosts, Brazil. As in 2006 and 2010, no automatic place is given to the titlist (Spain). The remaining 31 places will be determined by a qualification process, in which entrants from among the other 207 teams from the six FIFA confederations will compete. In the past, most qualification has been determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process. The distribution by confederation for the next World Cup will be: Europe (13), Africa (5), Asia, South America (4 or 5), North, Central America & Caribbean (3 or 4), Host (1), Oceania (0 or 1).
Europe and Africa have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between the highest placed teams in the qualification tournaments not guaranteed a place in the finals. A draw will determine the pairings between the four teams involved (Asia’s fifth-placed team, CONCACAF’s fourth-place team, South America’s fifth-placed team and Oceania’s first-place team).
The World Cup qualification draws set up a number of intriguing ties in the first round that features two intriguing regional matchups with Pakistan squaring off against Bangladesh, with Lebanon awaiting the winners of the South Asian derby and Cambodia and Laos battling it for the right to meet China in the second round. While in the second round which pits Uzbekistan in a Central Asian derby against neighbours Kyrgyzstan while Malaysia could square off with archrivals Singapore if the reigning ASEAN champions can overcome first round opponents Chinese Taipei.
The 16 lowest ranked teams – based on their record at the qualification campaign for the last World Cup – were paired off to play home and away matches with the winners advancing to Round 2. The eight winners from Round 1 will join 22 higher ranked teams where the teams were paired off for home-and-away matches on 23,28 July. The 15 winners from the second round will join the top five direct entrants (Japan, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, Australia and Bahrain) in the third round where they will be divided into five groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group will advance to the fourth round which will see the group winners and runners-up play in two groups of five. The top two teams from each group will advance to the World Cup finals, while the two third-placed teams will play each other to determine a possible 5th qualifier from Asia, but not before a play-off against other Confederation’s team.
20th World Cup 2014 – Asian Qualifiers
Round One (29 June, 3 July 2011)
Malaysia v Chinese Taipei
Pakistan v Bangladesh
Cambodia v Laos
Sri Lanka v Philippines
Afghanistan v Palestine
Vietnam v Macau
Nepal v Timor Leste
Mongolia v Myanmar
Round Two (23,28 July 2011)
Thailand v Afghanistan or Palestine
Lebanon v Bangladesh or Pakistan
China v Cambodia or Laos
Turkmenistan v Indonesia
Kuwait v Sri Lanka or Philippines
Oman v Mongolia or Myanmar
Saudi Arabia v Hong Kong
Iran v Maldives
Syria v Tajikistan
Qatar v Vietnam or Macau
Iraq v Yemen
Singapore v Malaysia or Chinese Taipei
Uzbekistan v Kyrgyzstan
UAE v India
Jordan v Nepal or Timor Leste.
Round Three (2 Sep 2011- 29 Feb 2012)
15 winners advancing from the Round Two plus Japan, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, Australia and Bahrain
Round Four (3 June 2012 – 18 June 2013)
Matches between top ten advancing from Round Three
Round five ( 6-10 September 2013)
AFC play-off
Round six (15 October-19 November 2013)
Inter-Continental play-off