Oman and Kuwait were left to rue the luck of the draw after the two Gulf sides found themselves grouped with Australia and Indonesia.

The quartet will compete in Group B and Oman coach Hamad Al Azzani admitted it will be difficult for his side to reach the finals for a third consecutive time.

"Our group is one of the toughest and if we want to qualify for the Asian Cup we must work very hard and play very well," said Al Azzani.

"Australia have a lot of well known players and they will definitely be a tough team to play against.

"Indonesia cannot be underestimated because they performed very well at the last Asian Cup and we also have a special rivalry with Kuwait."

Former Kuwait international striker Jassim Al Howaidi was far from pleased with how the draw went for his side.

"Personally I'm upset that we have been grouped with Oman but this is the draw and this is the classification that was done by the AFC," he said.

"All the groups are balanced and the level of the teams in our group is close except for Australia.

"We will be probably be competing with Oman and Indonesia for the second ticket to the finals."

United Arab Emirates team manager Abdullah Hassan had reason to smile though after his team were drawn with Uzbekistan, Malaysia and India in Group C.

"It is a balanced draw but we are at an advantage because our group is not a tough one," he said.

"However, we are not expecting it to be easy. Uzbekistan are a good team and have recently qualified to the final round of the World Cup qualifiers.

"India and Malaysia have also shown good improvement in recent years and should not be underestimated."

Iran coach Ali Daei is confident his side will progress to the Asian Cup finals in 2011 after they received a favourable draw for the qualifying competition on Thursday.

The draw, held at the Aspire Dome in Doha, placed Iran in Group E with Thailand, Jordan and Singapore - a line-up which holds few fears for the legendary striker.

"The draw was not bad and it is a good group for us," said Daei, who netted more than 100 goals for his country.

"We have a big chance to qualify and hopefully we can make it through.

"It was a good draw for us and we are favourites to qualify because there is no real competition for us."

Singapore coach Raddy Avramovic agreed Iran were clear favourites to progress from the group.

"Iran are the main team in the group and they will be favourite to get to the finals," the Serbian said.

"Their team may have been undergoing some changes but they have done well recently in World Cup qualifying and seem to have found the right balance in their team.

"They have a number of younger players but they are still one of the best in Asia and should be able to go through."

However, Avramovic believes there will be a close battle between Thailand, Jordan and his side for the group's second qualifying spot.

"When you are in the final qualifying round, all of the teams are good and I think that we all have an equal chance to go through," he said.

"We played against Jordan in January and we have played against Thailand several times in the SEA Games and Asean Championship so we know that they are both strong opponents.

"But we have also gained a lot of experience from the World Cup qualifiers and hopefully we can learn something from that for the Asian Cup qualifiers.

"The important thing is to make the most of our opportunities when they come our way. We had chances in our away games against Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan (in the World Cup qualifiers) and didn't take advantage.

"The good teams will punish you if you give up chances like that."