Lebanon's Football National Team Gears Up for 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers
©Lebanese Football Association

Lebanon's women's national football team is set to play its first international matches in a year as part of its preparations for the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers.

The team will travel to Nepal on February 14 to compete in a friendly tournament featuring the host nation, Lebanon, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan. The Cedars will face Myanmar on February 17, Nepal on February 20 and Kyrgyzstan on February 23. The top two teams will advance to the final on February 26.

"Our goal is to do a better campaign than the one we did in 2022, where we finished second of the group with 6 points out of 3 matches," Maroun Mahfoud, media officer of the Lebanese women's national team, said in an interview with This is Beriut.

"This tournament will no doubt help to raise the level of communication between the players, specially since we have around 40% of the squad playing abroad," he added.

Lebanon had planned to host its own friendly tournament in July, but it was canceled due to the recent war. A scheduled friendly against Iran in October was also called off for the same reason.

The national team has called up several key players based abroad, including Pilar Khoury (Strasbourg), Tiana Jaber (Wellington Phoenix), Layla Iskandar (Al-Ittihad) and Cyntia Salha (Lakatamia FC).

The 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers are scheduled to take place from June 23 to July 5. The qualification tournament will determine eight of the twelve teams that will compete in the final tournament in Australia. The competition will also serve as the first stage of Asian qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2028 Olympic football tournament.

The qualifiers will feature eight groups, with the group winners securing a spot in the final tournament. The official draw is set for March 21, 2025.

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