NDO/VNA – The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup's third qualifiers will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 1 instead of June 24 as initially scheduled, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced.

A special release of the FIFA Rankings for Asian teams will be revealed on June 18. Based on the rankings, the seeded squads for the draw will be decided.

The top 12 teams, including the hosts Qatar, which qualified for the third round will be drawn into two groups of six teams each based on the seeds.

The final round of the Asian qualifiers will begin in September and end in March 2022.

Vietnam have made history as they advanced to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers for the first time ever, after a five-goal thriller against the hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 15 (local time).

Though they fell to a 3-2 defeat away to the UAE and lost top spot in Group G, Vietnam advanced as one of the five best group runners-up.

Vietnam are the sole representatives of Southeast Asia among the squads qualifying for the final round.