LAHORE, Feb 6: Pakistan will take on Singapore in the qualifying phase of the Olympic Games football on Wednesday, in an away match at Singapore’s Jalan Besar stadium.

Singapore will meet Pakistan in a return match here on Feb 17 and the winners will appear in the second round (Group A) along with Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Zahid Hameed will lead Pakistan’s U-21 team in the two matches against Singapore.

Singapore’s U-21 are favourites to win the first leg as their national team recently won the ASEAN Championship. Singapore won the title as they ground out a 1-1 draw against Thailand for a 3-2 aggregate win at Bangkok.

The qualifying format of Olympics football sees the 20 lowest-ranked teams having to clear the preliminary round hurdle before joining the top 14, who are exempt from the preliminary round, in the second round qualifying.

The 24-team second round qualifying, which has been split into six groups of four each, runs through February 28-June 6, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the final round which will be played in three groups of four teams each.

The final home-and-away round will be held from August 22-November 21, with the three group winners representing Asia at the Beijing Olympics. China had already qualified as hosts.—APP