2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

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2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
Tournament details
Dates 12 March 2015 – 10 October 2017
Teams 45[note 1] (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played 223
Goals scored 665 (2.98 per match)
Attendance 4,377,585 (19,630 per match)
Top scorer(s) Mohammad Al-Sahlawi[upper-alpha 1]
Ahmed Khalil
(16 goals each)
2014
2022

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The Asian section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, held in Russia, for national teams which were members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). 4.5 slots (four direct slots and one inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament were available for AFC teams.[1]

On 16 April 2014, the AFC Executive Committee approved a proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup, which expanded to 24 teams starting in 2019.[2] Therefore, the first two rounds of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers also acted as qualifiers for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Format

The qualification structure was as follows:[2][3]

  • First round: 12 teams (ranked 35–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.
  • Second round: 40 teams (ranked 1–34 and six first round winners) were divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The eight group winners and the four best group runners-up advanced to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualification.
  • Third round: 12 teams (an increase from ten for 2014) which had advanced from the second round were divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams advanced to the fourth round.
  • Fourth round: Two third-placed teams of each group from the third round played home-and-away over two legs. The winners advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

The 46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification.[4] In order to determine which nations would compete in the first round and which nations would receive a bye through to the second round, the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 were used (shown in parentheses), as those were the latest published rankings prior to the first round draw. The FIFA Rankings of January 2015 were also used for seeding of the first round draw; however, for seeding in the second round and third round draws, the most recent FIFA Rankings prior to those draws were used.

First ever participation of Bhutan. Recorded for the qualifications of 2010, this selection withdrew without playing a game (initial draw preview first round against Kuwait)

From the January 2015 FIFA World Rankings[5]
Bye to the second round
(Ranked 1st to 34th)
Competing in first round
(Ranked 35th to 46th)
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  1.  Iran (51)
  2.  Japan (54)
  3.  South Korea (69)
  4.  Uzbekistan (71)
  5.  United Arab Emirates (80)
  6.  Qatar (92)
  7.  Oman (93)
  8.  Jordan (93)
  9.  China PR (96)
  10.  Australia (100)
  11.  Saudi Arabia (102)
  12.  Bahrain (110)
  13.  Iraq (114)
  14.  Palestine (115)
  15.  Lebanon (122)
  16.  Kuwait (125)
  17.  Philippines (129)
  18.  Maldives (131)
  19.  Vietnam (133)
  20.  Tajikistan (136)
  21.  Myanmar (141)
  22.  Afghanistan (142)
  23.  Thailand (144)
  24.  Turkmenistan (147)
  25.  North Korea (150)
  26.  Syria (151)
  27.  Kyrgyzstan (152)
  28.  Malaysia (154)
  29.  Hong Kong (156)
  30.  Singapore (157)
  31.  Indonesia (159)
  32.  Laos (160)
  33.  Guam (161)
  34.  Bangladesh (165)
  1.  India (171)
  2.  Sri Lanka (172)
  3.  Yemen (176)
  4.  Cambodia (179)
  5.  Chinese Taipei (182)
  6.  Timor-Leste (185)
  7.    Nepal (186)
  8.  Macau (186)
  9.  Pakistan (188)
  10.  Mongolia (194)
  11.  Brunei (198)
  12.  Bhutan (209)

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.[6][7][8]

Round Matchday Date
First round First leg 12 March 2015
Second leg 17 March 2015
Second round Matchday 1 11 June 2015
Matchday 2 16 June 2015
Matchday 3 3 September 2015
Matchday 4 8 September 2015
Matchday 5 8 October 2015
Matchday 6 13 October 2015
Matchday 7 12 November 2015
Matchday 8 17 November 2015
Matchday 9 24 March 2016
Matchday 10 29 March 2016
Round Matchday Date
Third round Matchday 1 1 September 2016
Matchday 2 6 September 2016
Matchday 3 6 October 2016
Matchday 4 11 October 2016
Matchday 5 15 November 2016
Matchday 6 23 March 2017
Matchday 7 28 March 2017
Matchday 8 13 June 2017
Matchday 9 31 August 2017
Matchday 10 5 September 2017
Fourth round First leg 5 October 2017
Second leg 10 October 2017

First round

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The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, 15:30 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[9]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
India  2–0    Nepal 2–0 0–0
Yemen  3–1  Pakistan 3–1 0–0
Timor-Leste  0–6[N 1]  Mongolia 0–3[N 1] 0–3[N 1]
Cambodia  4–1  Macau 3–0 1–1
Chinese Taipei  2–1  Brunei 0–1 2–0
Sri Lanka  1–3  Bhutan 0–1 1–2
Notes
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Timor-Leste won the first leg 4–1 and the second leg 1–0, thus winning 5–1 on aggregate and advancing to the Second round. On 12 December 2017 FIFA awarded both matches 3–0 to Mongolia due to Timor-Leste fielding numerous ineligible players. However, this was long after the Second round had been played, so Timor-Leste advanced and Mongolia were not reinstated.

Second round

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The draw for the second round was held on 14 April 2015, at 17:00 MST (UTC+8), at the JW Marriott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[10][11]

Summary

  Qualified for the third round and Asian Cup (except United Arab Emirates) as winners or top four runners-up
  Advanced to the Third Asian Cup qualifying round as bottom four runners-up, third place, or top four fourth placed team
  Advanced to the AFC Asian Cup qualifying play-off round.
  Denotes a team that was disqualified as a result of a FIFA suspension.
Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates[lower-alpha 1]

Australia

Qatar

China PR

Iran

Japan

Syria

Thailand

Iraq

South Korea

Uzbekistan

Palestine

Jordan

Kyrgyzstan

Hong Kong

Oman

Turkmenistan

Guam

Singapore

Afghanistan

Vietnam

Lebanon

Kuwait

Myanmar

North Korea

Philippines

Bahrain

Malaysia

Timor-Leste

Tajikistan

Bangladesh

Maldives

Bhutan

India

Cambodia

Chinese Taipei

Laos

Yemen

Indonesia
  1. United Arab Emirates had already qualified as hosts of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, so they were only competing for World Cup qualification.

Groups

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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Ranking of runner-up teams

To determine the four best runner-up teams, the following criteria were used:

  1. Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss)
  2. Goal difference
  3. Goals scored
  4. Fair play points
  5. Drawing of lots

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Third round

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The third round consisted of two groups of six teams. The first two teams in each group qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The two third-placed teams proceeded to the fourth round.

The draw for the third round was held on 12 April 2016, at 16:30 MST (UTC+8), at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[14][15]

Groups

Group A

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Group B

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Fourth round

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The two third-placed teams in each group from the third round played against each other home-and-away over two legs to determine which team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

The order of legs was announced during the draw for the third round.[16] Syria played their home match, as with all their home matches in the third round, in Malaysia due to the war time condition in Syria.[17]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Syria  2–3  Australia 1–1 1–2 (a.e.t.)

Inter-confederation play-offs

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The draw for the inter-confederation play-offs was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg.[18] The fifth-placed team from AFC was drawn against the fourth-placed team from CONCACAF, with the AFC team hosting the second leg.[19]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
CONCACAF 4th place Play-off 1 AFC 5th place 6 Nov '17 14 Nov '17

Qualified teams

The following five teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
 Iran Third round group A winners 12 June 2017 4 (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014)
 Japan Third round group B winners 31 August 2017 5 (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
 South Korea Third round group A runners-up 5 September 2017 9 (1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
 Saudi Arabia Third round group B runners-up 5 September 2017 4 (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)
 Australia CONCACAF v AFC play-off winners 15 November 2017 4 (19742, 20062, 2010, 2014)
1 Italic indicates hosts for that year.
2 Australia qualified as a member of the OFC in 1974 and 2006 (qualifying took place until 2005 and they left the OFC and joined the AFC in 2006).

Top goalscorers

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Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

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Notes

  1. Kuwait were disqualified after playing five matches. Indonesia were also disqualified before playing.
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See also

References

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External links