Azkals gear up for the stretch as AFC releases proposed schedule for WCQ Return

Football in the Philippines has geared up for its return not just domestically, but also internationally as the Asian Football Confederation has announced the proposed resumption of the Asian Qualifiers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In a release last Friday, the AFC announced that the remaining four matchdays in the second round were due to take place in October and November, after the original schedule of March and June were scrapped because of the novel coronavirus pandemic that caused all football activities to be stopped for the most of the world.

This comes after the Philippine Football Federation has initiated its return to action following several nations, as it submitted the guidelines for the PFL in which they target their return on July.

With that mind, the 124-ranked Azkals are gearing up for their final three fixtures in group A, in which it doubles it as a qualifier for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. 

As Syria leads the group with maximum of 15 points from their first five fixtures, all eyes will be on their reverse fixture against China on November 12, as they are at even 7 points and despite the massive goal difference, Li Tie's team are looking to settle the scores when their first meeting between them on October 15, 2019 ended in a goalless stalemate in Bacolod.

With the Syrians all but assured of their spot in the final round, the said match will be a determining factor in who gets the runner-up spot in which only four of the eight will get themselves a step closer to their World Cup dreams.

That titanic clash sandwiched the matches between Guam (October 8) and Maldives (November 17) who occupied the bottom two places.

The AFC has put the proposal in a view that they are planning to commence the subsequent qualification stages of both the final round in the World Cup and the playoff for the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers in which they are scheduled for March 2021.

With fears of the second wave of the virus looming large, the AFC said in a statement that they put the health and safety of the stakeholders its top priority, as they will "notify all parties should there be a need to reassess the match schedules" due to the impact of the pandemic.

Photo is from Philippine Football Federation (file)