The 2023 AFC Asian Cup will take place on January 12-February 10 this year, and will see 24 national teams battle for supremacy. The tournament will be held in Qatar, who are also the defending champions. Qatar were also the hosts for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and will be looking to host the continental showpiece event with much aplomb.
China were selected as the hosts initially, but the Covid-19 pandemic saw Qatar receive the rights later. Due to high summer temperatures, the tournament was also postponed to January this year.
Group C
Group C consists of Iran (AFC rank 2), United Arab Emirates (AFC rank 8), Hong Kong (AFC rank 28) and Palestine (AFC rank 17).
Group C squads
Iran: Alireza Beiranvand, Payam Niazmand, Hossein Hosseini, Milad Mohammadi, Ehsan Hajisafi, Ramin Rezaeian, Sadegh Moharrami, Saman Fallah, Rouzbeh Cheshmi, Hossein Kanaanizadegan, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Majid Hosseini, Aria Yousefi, Saeid Ezatolahi, Mohammad Mohebbi, Saman Ghoddos, Mehdi Torabi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Mohammadjavad Hosseinnejad, Omid Ebrahimi, Ali Gholizadeh, Mehdi Ghaedi, Shahriar Moghanlou, Mehdi Taremi, Sardar Azmoun, Reza Asadi, Karim Ansarifard
UAE: Ali Khasif, Khalid Eisa, Khaled Tawhid, Abdullah Idrees, Hashemi Hussain, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Mohamad Al-Attas, Khaled Ebraheim Al Dhanhani, Ahmed Abdulla, Abdelrahman Saleh, Bader Abaelaziz, Zayed Sultan, Ali Salmeen, Majid Rashid, Tahnoon Al-Zaabi, Abdulla Hamad, Yahia Nader, Mohamed Abbas, Abdalla Ramadan, Harib Abdalla Al-Maazmi, Ali Mabkhout, Ali Saleh, Fabio Lima, Caio, Yahya Al Ghassani, Sultan Adill Alamiri
Hong Kong: Hung-Fai Yapp, Ng Wai Him, Ka-Wing Tse, Sean Tse Ka Keung, Gerbig Oliver, Vas Nunez, Helio, Tsz-Chun Law, Ngai Hoi Li, Wu Chun-Ming, Chun-Lok Tan, Wai Wong, Lam Hin Ting, Chan Siu Kwan, Shinichi Chan, Tze-Nam Yue, Yu Joy Yin, Ju Yingzhi, Matthew Orr, Everton Camargo, Poon Pui Hin, Chang Hei Yin, Michael Udebuluzor, Sun Ming-Him, Stefan Figueiredo Pereira, Juninho
Palestine: Rami Hamadeh, Naeem Abu Akar, and Baraa Kharoub, Amr Kaddoura, Musab Al-Battat, Moussa Fairawi, Mohamed Khalil, Samer El-Gendy, Camilo Saldana, Michel Milan, Mohamed Saleh, and Yasser Hamad, Al-Mahdi Issa, Amid Mahajna, Ataa Jaber, Adi Kharoub, Muhammad Bassem, Samer Al-Zubaidi, Tamer Siam, and Mahmoud Abu Wardeh, Islam Al-Batran, Alaeddin Hussein, Mahmoud Wadi, Shihab Al-Qanbar, Zaid Al-Qanbar, and Uday Al-Dabbagh
Group C fixtures
UAE vs Hong Kong, January 14, 5:30 PM IST, Khalifa International Stadium (Al Rayyan)
Iran vs Palestine, January 14, 8:30 PM IST, Education City Stadium (Al Rayyan)
Palestine vs UAE January 18, 8:30 PM IST, Al Janoub Stadium (Al Wakrah)
Hong Kong vs Iran, January 19 8:30 PM IST, Khalifa International Stadium (Al Rayyan)
Iran vs UAE, January 23, 6:00 PM IST, Education City Stadium (Al Rayyan)
Hong Kong vs Palestine, January 23, 6:00 PM IST, Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium (Doha)
