By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : India will face Lebanon in the first round of the Asian qualifiers for the football World Cup in 2010, it was announced by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) here Monday.
The successful overseas training stint in Portugal last month under the watchful eyes of British coach Bob Houghton will stand the Indian team in good stead when they face the 135th ranked Lebanon in their away and home matches slated for Oct 8 and 28 respectively.
India has been seeded 28th in the draw for the Asian qualifiers that was conducted by Carlo Nohra, director of competitions of the AFC at its headquarters.
If India, raked 162nd in the world, scrapes past the first round, they will then meet the winner of the match between Mongolia and North Korea.
The second round is slated for Nov 9 and 18 while the draw for the third round will be made at Durban Nov 25.
From the 19 teams that clear the first round, the lowest eight based on ranking move on to the second round and the other 11 to round three. The five top seeds – Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran – join the qualification process in the third round.
Asian champions Iraq, who defeated Saudi Arabia in the final in Jakarta last month, will have to go through the first two rounds of qualification and have been slotted against Pakistan in the first round.
Bahrain, who are ranked sixth and just after the top five who get byes into the third round, will square up against Malaysia.