April 15, 2016
It still remains uncertain who will be Iran’s coach in those third round games, but Carlos Queiroz is still acting as the boss.
The third round draw was held Tuesday, where the 12 teams left competing were divided into two groups of six.
The 12 teams are comprised of the eight group winners from the second round, which was completed last month, and the four best second-placed teams.
The 12 teams were divided into six pots. The first pot was comprised of the two teams most highly rated in FIFA’s latest monthly computer ranking of all the world’s national teams. They are Iran and Australia. The second pot was comprised of the next two teams, South Korea and Japan, and so on down the scale.
Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the Asian Football Confederation then drew one team from each pot for Group A and one for Group B.
That produced the following lineups. The number preceding each team is its latest FIFA computer ranking.
Group A Group B
42 Iran 50 Australia
56 S. Korea 57 Japan
66 Uzbek. 60 S. Arabia
81 China 68 UAE
83 Qatar 105 Iraq
110 Syria 119 Thailand
Between September of this year and September of next year, the six teams in each group will play each other on a home and away basis with the top two sides from each group booking their places in the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia.
It doesn’t matter whether a team ends up in first or second place. Both will go to the finals. So, the odds in Group A are with Iran and South Korea, though both will have to keep an eye on their matches with Uzbekistan.
At the end of this round, the two third-placed teams will face each other in home and away matches, with the winner taking on the side that finishes fourth in the qualifying rounds for the region of North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The winner of that home and away set will go to the World Cup finals. Thus, Asia will send either four or five teams to the finals, which will start with 32 teams.
Queiroz, who submitted his resignation a few weeks ago, complaining of lack of support for the team from the government, met with reporters after the draw Tuesday and commented that South Korea would be Iran’s toughest opponent.
Asked about his resignation, Queiroz said, “It is not the right time to talk about this matter. I will hopefully see good events for Team Melli in the future.”