Palestine have held South Korea to a well-deserved, yet surprising, 0-0 draw in their opening Group C match in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The remarkable result in Seoul continues the rise of Palestinian football, which had peaked earlier this year with qualification for the knockout stage of the AFC Cup for the first time in the tournament held in Qatar.

Palestine’s appearance at the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers is also a first, but little hope was given to their match against the AFC’s record qualifiers with 11 appearances at football’s global showpiece event.

South Korea boasted many of their star names including striker Son Heung-min – captain of Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League – but were unable to breach the Palestinian defence.

Palestine overcome many obstacles to hold South Korea

The odds were also heavily stacked against Palestine given that South Korea have not lost a home qualifier since 2013 while their hosts were ranked 14th in the world by FIFA – that in comparison to the Lions of Canaan ranking in 96th place.

South Korea’s Son Heung-min, centre, fights for the ball with Palestine’s Attaa Jaber, left, and Musab Battat, right, during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Asia zone qualifier [Jung Yeon-je/AFP]

Despite those hurdles, Palestine looked to have broken the deadlock in the 22nd minute only for the effort to be correctly adjudged as off-side.

Hong Myung-bo is the hosts’ fourth coach this year and his side struggled to bring their talisman and skipper Son into the game, while the defence looked unsteady.

Their best effort of an even first half fell to Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in, but Palestinian goalkeeper Rami Hamadeh was equal to a well-struck close-range effort.

Hamadeh was called into action again by Lee in the 74th minute as he tipped a free kick over the bar not long after the South Korean spurned another good opening by shooting wide.

Oday Dabbagh went close for Palestine, whose legs were tiring, on the break, before Son rattled the outside of the post in the dying minutes.

A fan holds a banner that reads ‘South Korea and Palestine let’s go to World Cup together’ during the match [Kim Soo-Hyeon/Reuters]

How Palestine can secure a place at the 2026 World Cup

Following the second round of preliminary knockout matches, the group stages of the AFC qualifiers have now been formed by the 18 remaining teams from the region.

Iraq and Jordan are the other two strong favourites, alongside South Korea, to take the two automatic qualifying positions for the World Cup in group C, with Palestine, Oman and Kuwait seen as distant outsiders to challenge for the top spots.

Beyond the two automatic qualifiers from the group stage, six teams, comprising the best third- and fourth-placed finishers from the three groups, will progress to a further stage comprising two groups. The three teams in each group of these groups will face the other once at a neutral venue. The top two teams will progress to the World Cup.

The second-placed sides will face each other in a playoff for a spot in the intercontinental playoffs for the remaining World Cup berths.

Palestine, meantime, are playing their home matches abroad, usually in the Middle East, because of the war on Gaza. The local league has been suspended and many of the players are without a club.

The 2026 World Cup will be staged across Canada, Mexico and the United States with the final itself held in the US.

Palestine’s players line up for the anthems ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Asia zone qualifier in South Korea [Jung Yeon-je/AFP]