2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round

The third round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 1 September 2016 to 5 September 2017.^[1]

Format

A total of twelve teams which advanced from the second round (the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up) 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.

Qualified teams

Group (Second round)	Winners	Runners-up (Best 4)
A	Saudi Arabia	United Arab Emirates
B	Australia	—
C	Qatar	China
D	Iran	—
E	Japan	Syria
F	Thailand	Iraq
G	South Korea	—
H	Uzbekistan	—

Seeding

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.^[2][3]

The seeding were based on the FIFA World Rankings of April 2016 (shown in parentheses below).^[4] The twelve teams were seeded into six pots:^[5]

• Pot 1 contained the teams ranked 1–2.
• Pot 2 contained the teams ranked 3–4.
• Pot 3 contained the teams ranked 5–6.
• Pot 4 contained the teams ranked 7–8.
• Pot 5 contained the teams ranked 9–10.
• Pot 6 contained the teams ranked 11–12.

Each group contained one team from each of the six pots. The fixtures of each group were automatically decided based on the respective pot of each team.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup. Italicised teams qualified for the fourth round.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Iran (42)  Australia (50)	South Korea (56)  Japan (57)	Saudi Arabia (60)  Uzbekistan (66)
Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
United Arab Emirates (68)  China (81)	Qatar (83)  Iraq (105)	Syria (110)  Thailand (119)

Groups

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tiebreakers

In league format, the ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria (regulations Articles 20.6 and 20.7):[6] Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) Overall goal difference Overall goals scored Points in matches between tied teams Goal difference in matches between tied teams Goals scored in matches between tied teams Away goals scored in matches between tied teams (if the tie was only between two teams in home-and-away league format) Fair play points first yellow card: minus 1 point indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points direct red card: minus 4 points yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points Drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	10	6	4	0	10	2	+8	22	2018 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	2–0
2	South Korea	10	4	3	3	11	10	+1	15			0–0	—	1–0	2–1	3–2	3–2
3	Syria	10	3	4	3	9	8	+1	13	Fourth round		0–0	0–0	—	1–0	2–2	3–1
4	Uzbekistan	10	4	1	5	6	7	−1	13			0–1	0–0	1–0	—	2–0	1–0
5	China	10	3	3	4	8	10	−2	12			0–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	—	0–0
6	Qatar	10	2	1	7	8	15	−7	7			0–1	3–2	1–0	0–1	1–2	—

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	10	6	2	2	17	7	+10	20	2018 FIFA World Cup		—	2–1	2–0	1–2	2–1	4–0
2	Saudi Arabia	10	6	1	3	17	10	+7	19			1–0	—	2–2	3–0	1–0	1–0
3	Australia	10	5	4	1	16	11	+5	19	Fourth round		1–1	3–2	—	2–0	2–0	2–1
4	United Arab Emirates	10	4	1	5	10	13	−3	13			0–2	2–1	0–1	—	2–0	3–1
5	Iraq	10	3	2	5	11	12	−1	11			1–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	—	4–0
6	Thailand	10	0	2	8	6	24	−18	2			0–2	0–3	2–2	1–1	1–2	—

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Goalscorers

There were 129 goals scored in 60 matches, for an average of 2.15 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Notes

References

External links

• Official FIFA World Cup website
  • Qualifiers – Asia: Round 3, FIFA.com
• FIFA World Cup, the-AFC.com
• FIFA World Cup 2018, stats.the-AFC.com