The Jordanians made a winning start to their campaign last month with a 2-1 victory over Chinese Taipei, and the Belgian wants his players to maintain the team’s perfect start despite fitness concerns due to an ongoing shutdown of the Jordan Premier League.

With the Socceroos showdown looming next month – November’s game will be a rematch of the nations’ AFC Asian Cup opener in which Jordan claimed a surprise win – Borkelmans is looking to instill a winning mentality into his team going into the next two rounds as the battle for places in the next phase of qualifying starts to intensify.

With records, streaks and qualification for the two biggest international tournaments on the Asian football calendar all on the line, the-AFC.com examines some of the stats and facts you need to know ahead of the 32 fixtures to come.

Matchdays One and Two produced several surprises and the-AFC-com picks out five matches to keep an eye on in Thursday's Matchday Three.

After both Group B heavyweights began their campaigns with successful away trips last month, Australia are aiming to build on their positive start when they meet Nepal in Canberra, while Jordan face West Asian rivals Kuwait in Amman.

After losing their opening match against DPR Korea last month, Lebanon currently sit fourth in the group behind DPR Korea, Korea Republic and Turkmenistan who they host at Beirut Sports City Stadium on Thursday.

Speaking exclusively to the-AFC.com, Romanian Ciobotariu revealed his side have no other option but to get the three points if they want to achieve their objective of reaching the AFC Asian Cup Finals for the second consecutive time.

September came and went without success for Myanmar, whose first two competitive fixtures under Radulović ended in defeat to leave them on the bottom of the group.

All 40 teams aiming for qualification will be in action with Matchdays Three and Four scheduled for October 10 and 15.

As we prepare for another fiesta of national team football, the-AFC.com takes a look at the scenario in the eight groups heading into the next two rounds of matches on the Road to Qatar 2022 and China 2023.