The South American section of the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

acted as qualifiers for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

held in Russia, for national teams which are members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). A total of 4.5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament were available for CONMEBOL teams. Two-time defending

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

champions

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

did not qualify for 2018 FIFA World Cup after a 3–0 loss to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

on the final day of qualifying campaign, resulting in a sixth-place finish. As a result, following intercontinental play-offs against the record five-time

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Men's Nations Cup, known as the OFC Nations Cup before the 2024 OFC Men's Nations Cup, 2024 edition, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior list of men's national association football teams, men's natio ...

champions

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

qualified for the World Cup for the first time since

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Format

The qualification structure was the same as for the previous five tournaments. The ten teams played in a league of home-and-away round-robin matches. The top four teams qualified for the

, and the fifth-placed team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs. Unlike previous qualifying tournaments where the fixtures were pre-determined, the fixtures were determined by draw, which was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in

Strelna Strelna ( rus, Стре́льна, p=ˈstrʲelʲnə) is a municipal settlement in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, about halfway between Saint Petersburg proper and Petergof, and overlooking the shore ...

, Saint Petersburg, Russia. For scheduling reasons,

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

were automatically positioned as Teams 4 and 5 respectively to ensure that no team has to play both of them on any double matchday. The remaining eight teams were drawn into one of the remaining eight positions from Teams 1 to 10 (except 4 and 5).

Entrants

All ten national teams from CONMEBOL entered qualification. Note: Bolded teams qualified for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. ''Peru'' advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Schedule

There were a total of 18 matchdays: four in 2015, eight in 2016, and six in 2017. The inter-confederation play-offs were scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017. The fixtures for CONMEBOL qualification were decided based on the draw positions, as follows:

Standings

Matches

Matchday 1

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Matchday 2

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Matchday 3

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Matchday 4

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Matchday 5

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Matchday 6

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Matchday 7

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Matchday 8

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Matchday 9

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Matchday 10

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Matchday 11

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Matchday 12

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Matchday 13

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Matchday 14

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Matchday 15

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Matchday 16

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Matchday 17

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Matchday 18

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Inter-confederation 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 (

), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in

, Saint Petersburg. The fifth-placed team from CONMEBOL was drawn against the first-placed team from OFC, with the CONMEBOL team hosting the second leg.

Qualified teams

The following five teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the final tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

Notes

References

External links

* *
Qualifiers – South America
FIFA.com
FIFA World Cup Russia 2018
CONMEBOL.com {{DEFAULTSORT:World Cup

Conmebol CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2015 in South American football 2016 in South American football 2017 in South American football Brazil at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Uruguay at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Argentina at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Colombia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Peru at the 2018 FIFA World Cup