War Elephants land tough World Cup, Asian Cup draw

Drawn in Group C, the War Elephants will play against Asian giants South Korea and China with the fourth team in the pool being the winners of a play-off between Singapore or Guam, reports the Bangkok Post.

The first leg of that play-off is in Singapore on Oct 12, with the return leg in Guam five days later.

The 36 participating regional countries were drawn into nine groups of four teams each. They will compete against each other in a home-and-away, round-robin format between November 2023 and June 2024.

A total of 10 teams from the phase will progress to Round 1 of the Preliminary Joint Qualification.

As there will be an expanded total of 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, the first time this many have competed at the tournament, eight and a half slots are on offer to the Asian teams.

Thai team manager Nualphan Lamsam admitted it was a tough draw for the War Elephants as “South Korea and China are among the top teams in Asia. But we will be trying our best.”

South Korea are captained by superstar striker Son Heung-min who plays his club football in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur.

South Korea are currently ranked 28^th in the FIFA World index, China are ranked 79^th, while Thailand currently rank 113^th.