2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification (AFC)

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.

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. 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:
*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. 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'')

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

First round

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.

Second round

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.

Summary

Groups

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Indonesia was also drawn into this group, but on 30 May 2015 the country's football association was suspended due to governmental interference, and on 3 June 2015 the team was disqualified and all matches involving it were cancelled.

Group G

Group H

Ranking of runner-up teams

To determine the four best runner-up teams, the following criteria were used:
# Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss)
# Goal difference
# Goals scored
# Fair play points
# Drawing of lots

As a result of Indonesia being disqualified due to FIFA suspension, Group F contained only four teams compared to five teams in all other groups. Therefore, the results against the fifth-placed team were not counted when determining the ranking of the runner-up teams.

Third round

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.

Groups

Group A

Group B

Fourth round

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. 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.

Intercontinental play-offs

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. The fifth-placed team from AFC was drawn against the fourth-placed team from CONCACAF, with the AFC team hosting the second leg.

Qualified teams

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

:

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

There were 668 goals scored in 225 matches (including 2 international play-offs), for an average of 2.97 goals per match.
;16 goals

* Mohammad Al-Sahlawi
* Ahmed Khalil

;11 goals

* Tim Cahill
* Sardar Azmoun

;10 goals

* Omar Kharbin

;9 goals

* Hassan Al-Haydos
* Ali Mabkhout

;8 goals

* Yang Xu
* Mehdi Taremi

;7 goals

* Mile Jedinak
* Yu Dabao
* Keisuke Honda
* Son Heung-min

;6 goals

* Tom Rogic
* Mohannad Abdul-Raheem
* Shinji Kagawa
* Hamza Al-Dardour
* Taisir Al-Jassim
* Mahmoud Al-Mawas
* Manuchekhr Dzhalilov

For full lists of goalscorers, see sections in each round:

*First round
*Second round
* Third round
* Fourth round

Notes

See also

* 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification

References

External links

*

Qualifiers – Asia
FIFA.com
FIFA World Cup
the-AFC.com
Preliminary Joint Qualification 2018
stats.the-AFC.com
FIFA World Cup 2018
stats.the-AFC.com

{{2016 in Japanese football

Afc
FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
2015 in Asian football
2016 in Asian football
2017 in Asian football