Asian Cup - Landing Page

With Asia’s representatives returning for home games following a mixed FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022, the-AFC.com looks at five things we learned from their friendly matches.

Frenchman Renard, 54, took the Green Falcons to a memorable FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 group stage victory over Argentina in November.

Japan and Korea Republic drew against Uruguay and Colombia respectively while Saudi Arabia suffered a 2-1 defeat to Venezuela.

Uzbekistan edged Bolivia 1-0 while Kuwait defeated Philippines 2-0.

Most of the 24 teams who have qualified for Qatar 2023 will be in action with their results set to impact their next FIFA World Ranking, which will determine the seedings for the AFC Asian Cup draw in May.

"Based on the technical and expert review and the agreement made, Mr. Amir Ghalenoei, the valuable coach of our country is selected as the head coach of the national football team," FFIRI said in a statement.

The German, a FIFA World Cup winner as a player in 1990, was confirmed as Paulo Bento’s replacement last week and arrived in Seoul on Wednesday ahead of a pair of friendly matches against Colombia and Uruguay later this month.

Klinsmann has prioritised ending the Koreans’ AFC Asian Cup drought, which extends back more than 63 years to the second of the nation’s two back-to-back continental titles won on home soil in 1960, before surpassing the country’s recent achievements at the FIFA World Cup.

The 67-year-old, who succeeds Korea Republic's Park Hang-seo, has coached two dozen national and club teams during his long career.

He led Japan to the AFC Asian Cup™ title in 2000 and was in charge of the co-hosts at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Klinsmann was most recently at Hertha Berlin, where he quit after 10 weeks. The 58-year-old succeeds Paulo Bento, who took the Koreans to the last 16 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, where they were beaten 4-1 by Brazil.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) said Jankovic would take charge of the team for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ and the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America.

The Portuguese, who will be 70 on March 1, has been to the FIFA World Cup four times, three with Islamic Republic of Iran where he was in charge for nearly a decade in two different spells.

Arnold last week extended his tenure at Socceroos’ helm for another three-and-a-half years after steering the team to the Round of 16 in Qatar last year, although he now also has his sights set on longer-term goals for the game.

"Argentina's Hector Cuper, new coach of Syria. The new coach of the Syrian national team and his assistant staff will arrive in Syria in the coming days," the Syrian Football Association posted on Facebook, without specifying the duration of his contract.