LAHORE, Feb 19: Pakistan will take on hosts Sri Lanka along with Chinese Taipei and Brunei Darussalam when the third AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers (Group ‘D’) kick off on April 4.

The opening day will see Sri Lanka take on Brunei at 4.00pm followed by the Pakistan and Chinese Taipei clash at 6.30pm.

The Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, will host the four-team Group ‘D’.

Titlist India, 2006 gold-medalist Tajikistan and DPR Korea enjoy direct entry into the finals. Meanwhile, the draw slotted 16 teams into four groups of four teams each.

Unlike the AFC Presidents Cup, the AFC Challenge Cup, launched by the

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) two years ago, is a competition for national teams. AFC received a total of 17 entries for the third edition of the competition and the AFC Competitions Committee decided that the last two teams according to the FIFA rankings in the list would play off for a spot in the qualification.

Macau will face Mongolia in a two-legged play-off, which will see two matches being held on March 7 and 14 with the winner joining Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh in Group ‘A’. Group ‘B’ will see SAFF champion Maldives, Turkmenistan, the Philippines and Bhutan fight it out while Group ‘C’ stands out as the most interesting to watch with Nepal, who are hosting the section, finding themselves alongside Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Palestine.

The winners of each group and the best second-placed team from among the groups advance to the eight-team finals (five qualifiers plus three direct entrants).—Agencies