Asia's elite national teams booked their spots in the AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar after a gruelling and mentally taxing second round heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Join the-AFC.com as we take a look at players who can change the outcome of matches for their teams in Group B.

The-AFC.com dives deep into the 12 nations who will be taking part in the upcoming AFC Asian Qualifiers - Road to Qatar assessing and analysing the key men, highlighting the history, and giving a general insight into the teams battling out for a place at Qatar 2022.

New on this stage of the Asian Qualifiers, Southeast Asia's reigning regional champions Vietnam are set to make their bow, but will do so replete with some of the most exciting young talents from ASEAN.

The-AFC.com previews the sides still standing as the pick of the continent’s national teams vie for a place in Qatar next year.

While some teams come into the final stage of the Qualifiers with a history of reaching multiple World Cups, Oman are only at this stage for the third time in their history after 2002 and 2014.

The Chinese have not appeared at the FIFA World Cup since securing their one and only spot at the Finals, in 2002, but, after being drawn in a challenging Group B, coach Li Tie will be hoping to overcome the odds to end the country’s two decade hoodoo.

As the third round of the Asian Qualifiers gets underway in a few days’ time, the-AFC.com profiles each of the 12 teams in the two groups in terms of history and key players.

Giants of Asian football on all levels, Saudi Arabia returned to the FIFA World Cup in 2018 after an absence of 12 years and will be hoping to make it back-to-back appearances for the first time since qualifying for 2002 and 2006.

With four direct qualification spots up for grabs, and the continent’s top players and coaches going all out to turn their dreams into reality, join us as we preview the contenders.

Here we examine Australia, the now-habitual FIFA World Cup participants who overcame a range of difficulties to establish a perfect record in their qualifying campaign thus far, but who will need to stare down all new challenges in order to keep it.

While AFC Asian Cup holders Qatar have already claimed a place as the FIFA World Cup hosts, the top two nations in each of the continent’s two qualifying groups will also advance to the Finals while the third-placed finishers will enter into a playoff to potentially claim a further spot for Asia.

Here we take a look at the prospects of Japan, the top seeds in Group B and habitual qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup.