Soccer-Palestine at the Asian Cup

FIFA world ranking: 99

Ranking in Asia: 16

Previous Asian Cups: 1

Best performance: Group stage (2015)

2015: Group stage

Nickname: The Knights

Coach: Noureddine Ould Ali

Regular captain: Abdelatif Bahdari

Player to watch: Abdelatif Bahdari

Recent form:

Oct 12 Tajikistan 0-0 Palestine* Dhaka

Nov 16 Palestine 2-1 Pakistan Al-Ram

Nov 20 China 1-1 Palestine Haikou

Dec 24 Palestine 1-1 Iran Doha

* Palestine won 4-3 on penalties

Fixtures:

Group B

Jan 6 Syria v Palestine Sharjah

Jan 11 Palestine v Australia Dubai

Jan 15 Palestine v Jordan Abu Dhabi

Palestine have qualified for the Asian Cup for the second tournament in a row after securing their spot at the 2015 finals by winning the AFC Challenge Cup in the Maldives a year earlier.

This time the west Asian side have progressed through the regular qualifying campaign and will hope to have shaken off the issues that hampered them late in the campaign.

Bolivian coach Julio Cesar Baldevisieo controversially replaced Abdel Nasser Barakat, only to be fired himself and replaced by Noureddine Ould Ali. (Compiled by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by John O'Brien)