Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The World Cup 2014 Final Asian Qualifying Round Draw at AFC House on Friday attracted an exceptionally high number of live streams on the-afc.com.
Between 2.55pm and 4.55pm Malaysian time, statistics show 264,959 streams with 4.15pm being peak time with 51,934 streams.
Towards the end of the live streaming, at about 4.55pm, 4,359 streams were recorded, showing the event itself was viewed by many people online and was a success.
AFC Asian Cup 2011 finalists Japan and Australia will renew acquaintances in the final round after the official draw saw the two continental giants pooled together in Group B.
Japan and Australia have also been grouped with 2007 AFC Asian Cup winners Iraq, who are aiming to qualify for only the second time following their participation at Mexico 86, Jordan and Oman, both of whom are hoping Brazil 2014 marks their debut in the finals of the global game's greatest tournament.
Iran, three-time World Cup qualifiers having also qualified for the 1978 competition, are in Group A where they are joined by familiar foes Qatar, their opponents the last match of the Third Round qualifying campaign.
Group A also sees outsiders Lebanon - the only one of the ten teams in Friday's draw to be outside the top 100 of FIFA's world ranking - once again go head-to-head with Korea Republic, following their two vastly differing matches in the third round of the qualifiers, the first of which saw the 2002 World Cup semi-finalists cruise to a 6-0 win before the Lebanese pulled off a shock 2-1 win in Beirut.
The final team in Group A is Uzbekistan, who ended their Third Round campaign with a 1-0 victory over the Asian champions in Japan to ensure that they joined Iran and 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts Qatar as the only undefeated teams in the Final Round of Brazil 2014 qualifiers.
THE GROUPINGS
GROUP A
Korea Republic
Iran
Uzbekistan
Qatar
Lebanon
GROUP B
Australia
Iraq
Jordan
Oman
Japan