The 2023–24 AFC Cup group stage will be played from 18 September to 11 December 2023.
A total of 36 teams competed in the group stage to decide the 11 places in the
knockout stage of the
2023–24 AFC Cup
The 2023–24 AFC Cup will be the 20th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
This is the first ever AFC Cup season to have a two-year (autumn- ...
.
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 24 August 2023 at AFC House in
Kuala Lumpur
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Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
. The 36 teams were drawn into nine groups of four teams: three groups each in the West Asia Zone (Groups A–C) and the ASEAN Zone (Groups F–H), one group in the Central Asia Zone (Groups E), and one group each in the South Asia Zone (Group D) and the East Asia Zone (Group I). For each zone, teams were seeded into four pots and drawn into the relevant positions within each group, based on their
association ranking and their seeding within their association, in consideration of technical balance between groups. Teams from the same association in zones with more than one group (West Asia Zone and ASEAN Zone) could not be drawn into the same group.
Format
In the group stage, each group is played on a home-and-away
round-robin format. The following teams will advance to the
knockout stage:
*The winners of each group and the best runners-up in the West Asia Zone and the ASEAN Zone advance to the
Zonal semi-finals.
*The winners of each group in the South Asia Zone, Central Asia Zone and the East Asia Zone advance to the
Inter-zone play-off semi-finals.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to
points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 8.3):
#Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
#Goal difference in all group matches;
#Goals scored in all group matches;
#
Penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
if only two teams playing each other in the last round of the group are tied;
#Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
#
Association ranking;
#Drawing of lots.
Schedule
The schedule of each matchday was as follows.
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
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Group F
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Group G
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Group H
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Group I
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Ranking of runner-up teams
West Asia Zone
Since Group A only had three teams, the results against fourth-placed teams in Groups B and C were omitted for this ranking.
ASEAN Zone
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afc Cup Group Stage 2023-24
August 2023 sports events in Asia
2023 in Asian association football leagues