2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
The AFC second round of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, which also serves as the second round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, is being played from 5 September 2019 to 17 November 2020.
Format
A total of 40 teams were drawn into eight groups of five to play home-and-away round-robin matches. They included the 34 teams which received byes to this round, and the six winners from the first round.The eight group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the third round. If Qatar, the World Cup hosts, win their group or finish as one of the four best second-placed teams, their spot in the third round will be given to the fifth best second-placed team.
Matches in this round are also part of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign. Twelve teams which advance to the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualification will automatically qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. Twenty-four teams will play in the third round of the AFC Asian Cup qualification to decide the remaining 16 teams. In total, the 2023 AFC Asian Cup will feature 24 teams.
Seeding
The draw for the second round was held on 17 July 2019 at 17:00 MST, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of June 2019.
Note: Bolded teams qualified for the third round.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 |
† First round winners
Schedule
The schedule of each matchday is as follows.On 5 March 2020, FIFA announced that it would be monitoring the health situation in the region for possible rescheduling of matchdays 7 through 10 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 9 March 2020, FIFA and AFC announced that the matches on matchdays 7–10 due to take place in March and June 2020 were postponed, with the new dates to be confirmed. However, subject to approval by FIFA and AFC, and agreement of both member associations, the matches may be played as scheduled provided that the safety of all individuals involved meets the required standards. On 5 June 2020, AFC confirmed that Matchdays 7 and 8 were scheduled to take place on 8 and 13 October respectively while Matchdays 9 and 10 were scheduled to kick off on 12 and 17 November.
Note: The group spots of Qatar and Bangladesh were swapped due to Qatar's planned participation in 2020 Copa América.
| Matchday | Dates | Matches |
| Matchday 1 | 5 September 2019 | Team 3 vs. Team 2, Team 5 vs. Team 4 |
| Matchday 2 | 10 September 2019 | Team 4 vs. Team 1, Team 5 vs. Team 3 |
| Matchday 3 | 10 October 2019 | Team 1 vs. Team 5, Team 2 vs. Team 4 |
| Matchday 4 | 15 October 2019 | Team 5 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 1 |
| Matchday 5 | 14 November 2019 | Team 4 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 1 |
| Matchday 6 | 19 November 2019 | Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 4 vs. Team 5 |
| Matchday 7 | 8 October 2020 | Team 1 vs. Team 4, Team 3 vs. Team 5 |
| Matchday 8 | 13 October 2020 | Team 5 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2 |
| Matchday 9 | 12 November 2020 | Team 2 vs. Team 5, Team 1 vs. Team 3 |
| Matchday 10 | 17 November 2020 | Team 3 vs. Team 4, Team 1 vs. Team 2 |
Groups
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Group E
The group spots of Qatar and Bangladesh were swapped due to Qatar's participation in 2020 Copa América.
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Group F
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Group G
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Group H
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