The Socceroos face a tantalising rematch with Japan, the side they lost to both home and away at the same stage of 2022 qualification, as they look to seal a berth at a sixth consecutive World Cup. Graham Arnold’s side were also grouped with Saudi Arabia (ranked No 56 in the world) in a tough Group C.

Bahrain (81), China PR (88) and Indonesia (134) complete Australia’s opponents for the third round of 2026 World Cup qualifying following the draw held in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Eighteen Asian nations were placed in three groups of six for the next phase, with the top two set to automatically qualify for the showpiece event to be held in United States, Canada and Mexico.

“It’s nice to have a clear understanding of what’s ahead of us over the next 12 months,” Arnold said. “We’ve spent the last few months looking at various scenarios on what our path might look like, which will now help accelerate our planning. With that detail now in front of us to prepare, our sole focus is to qualify directly by this time next year.

“We knew this round of qualifying would present challenges however the draw panned out, particularly given the way the game is growing across the confederation. I feel it’s important we embrace those challenges; with our mindset, belief and camaraderie integral to achieve our goal of qualification.”

Australia were seeded in pot two of the latest draw, based on the Fifa world rankings at the end of the second round of qualifying, as the fourth-highest ranked Asian nation. Japan (ranked No 17), Iran (20) and Korea Republic (22) were all ranked above Australia (23) and placed in pot one.

The Socceroos cruised through the second round of qualifying with six wins from six matches against Lebanon, Palestine and Bangladesh. With qualification from that phase secured with two games to spare, head coach Arnold was able to use the latter stages of the group to blood fresh talent and reintroduce out-of-sorts veterans.

Australia will open their third-round qualifying campaign at home against Bahrain on 5 September, then face Indonesia away five days later. The group-stage format of 10 matches will be played across September, October and November 2024, and March and June 2025.

The third and fourth-placed teams from each third-round group will stay alive in the AFC Asian qualifiers, where the top nation from two groups of three will book their spot at the first 48-team World Cup.

Even if Australia were to miss out at that latter stage, there could be a last-resort pathway to the 2026 World Cup through an intercontinental playoff, a long and arduous journey similar to the one that Arnold’s side needed to take to the 2022 tournament where they reached the round of 16.