Bangladesh will play in the Asian Cup Qualifiers directly despite losing to Oman 3-0 in their last Group E Joint Qualification match of the FIFA World Cup' 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023 in Doha on Tuesday.
M Al Ghafri put Oman ahead in the 22nd minute while K Al-Hajri netted two more goals for the Gulf nation in the 61st and 81st minutes respectively.
After Tuesday's frustrating match, Bangladesh finished 5th and last in the five-team Group E but reached the AFC Asian Cup 2023 final qualifiers (avoiding the play-off stage) as one of three best three 5th teams of the Asian groups.
On completion of the group matches, Bangladesh finished overall 35th in Asia to play directly in the qualifying round.
The top 13 teams of Asia (Ranked 1-13) will play in the FIFA World Cup' 2022 Qualifiers and in the final round of the AFC Asian Cup' 2023.
The 14th to 35th ranked teams including South Asian nations-- India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh-- will play on home and away basis six-match AFC Asian Cup final qualifiers from February to September next year.
The remaining and bottom four teams of Asia---Indonesia, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei and Guam-- will compete in the play-off stage for the remaining two slots of the 24-team Asian Cup final qualifiers.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh football team is scheduled to return home in the early hours of Thursday.
