Former AFC Asian Cup winners Iraq and Saudi Arabia face off in the Jordanian capital Amman on Tuesday evening as the two former continental champions seek to further improve their chances of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015.

The pair meet in Group C with Saudi Arabia, a three-time winner of the Asian title in 1984, 1988 and 1996, leading the standings with six points from their opening two games, which see them sit three points clear of 2007 champions Iraq and China.

Saudi Arabia have never failed to qualify for the finals of the AFC Asian Cup since first playing in the competition in 1984 and have appeared in the final of the tournament a record six times.

With only the top two teams in each group guaranteed to progress to the finals in Australia in January 2015, the focus is on Saudi Arabia coach Juan Roman Lopez Caro, who took over following Frank Rijkaard's disappointing tenure, to maintain his side's qualifying form.

The Chinese, meanwhile, take on Indonesia in Jakarta knowing they need to win to keep the pressure on both the Saudis and Iraq as caretaker boss Fu Bo seeks to build on the country's encouraging performance at the East Asian Cup during the summer.

Qatar, hosts of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals when they reached the last eight, took the opportunity to move into joint-top spot with Bahrain in Group D on Sunday evening in Doha as Fahad Thani's side notched up a 6-0 win over Yemen.

The meeting between the two nations was played two days earlier than the rest of the qualifying matches for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 and former AFC Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim scored a hat-trick in a comfortable win over a Yemen side reduced to 10 men for the entire second half.

"We deserved to win tonight and, despite the big victory, we didn't play as well as the result suggests," said Thani. "We tried our best to win tonight and we worked very well, especially in the last third of the pitch.

"Our chances are still open as Bahrain still have a match against Malaysia. We shouldn't be fooled by this result and we must work hard as the road is still long."

Bahrain travel to Kuala Lumpur to face Malaysia on Tuesday evening off the back of a loss against Thailand in a friendly in Bangkok on Thursday and are looking to secure a third straight win in qualifying after victories over Qatar and Yemen so far.

In Group A, Jordan will be aiming to maintain the run of form that has seen them progress to the play-offs for the FIFA World Cup finals when they host Paul Le Guen's Oman.

Oman lead Group A by two points from the Jordanians with Syria and Singapore – who meet at Singapore's Jalan Besar Stadium – trail behind in the quest for the two qualifying berths.

Meanwhile, Group B pacesetters Iran and Kuwait take on Lebanon and Thailand respectively, while in Group E Hong Kong will look to keep their impressive start to the campaign alive against the United Arab Emirates.

Hong Kong are currently second in Group E, two points behind the UAE after drawing with Uzbekistan in Tashkent and securing victory over Vietnam in their most recent AFC Asian Cup qualifying outing. Uzbekistan and Vietnam face off on Tuesday in Tashkent.

Two teams from each of the five qualifying groups plus the third placed nation with the best record will join hosts Australia, champions Japan, automatic qualifiers Korea Republic and 2012 AFC Challenge Cup holders DPR Korea in the 16th edition of the AFC Asian Cup finals, which will be played in Australia from January 9 to 31, 2015.

The winners of the 2014 edition of the AFC Challenge Cup will also earn a berth at the finals.

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