November 18, 2016
In the standings below, half of the 10 scheduled games for each team have been played. A total of 46 Asian teams began the competition. All but the 12 below have been eliminated.
Group A P W D L GF GA GD Pts FIFA
IRAN 5 3 2 0 4 0 +4 11 27
- Korea 5 3 1 1 8 6 +2 10 44
Uzbekistan 5 3 0 2 5 3 +2 9 48
Syria 5 1 2 2 1 2 – 1 5 96
Qatar 5 1 1 3 3 6 – 3 4 91
China 5 0 2 3 2 6 – 4 2 84
IRAN 2, Qatar 0
South Korea 3, China 2
Uzbekistan 1, Syria 0
China 0, IRAN 0 tie
Syria 0, South Korea 0 tie
Qatar 0, Uzbekistan 1
South Korea 3, Qatar 2
China 0, Syria 1
Uzbekistan 0, IRAN 1
Uzbekistan 2, China 0
IRAN 1, South Korea 0
Qatar 1, Syria 0
Syria 0, IRAN 0 tie
South Korea 2, Uzbekistan 1
China 0, Qatar 0 tie
Qatar v IRAN, March 23
IRAN v China, March 28
IRAN v Uzbekistan, June 13
- Korea v. IRAN, August 31
IRAN v Syria, September 5
Group B P W D L GF GA GD Pts FIFA
- Arabia 5 3 1 1 9 5 + 4 10 54
Japan 5 3 1 1 8 5 + 3 10 51
Australia 5 2 3 0 8 5 + 3 9 40
UAE 5 3 0 2 7 6 + 1 9 70
Iraq 5 1 0 4 6 8 – 2 3 113
Thailand 5 0 1 4 3 12 – 9 1 146
Australia 2, Iraq 0
Japan 1, UAE 2
- Arabia 1, Thailand 0
Iraq 1, S. Arabia 2
Thailand 0, Japan 2
UAE 0, Australia 1
Japan 2, Iraq 1
UAE 3, Thailand 1
Saudi Arabia 2, Australia 2 tie
Australia 1, Japan 1 tie
Iraq 4, Thailand 0
Saudi Arabia 3, UAE 0
Japan 2, Saudi Arabia 1
Thailand 2, Australia 2 tie
UAE 2, Iraq 0
In the scores above, home teams are listed first.
GP = Games Played; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against; GD = Goal Differential; Pts = Points (3 for a win and 1 for a draw). Where teams are tied on points, the Goal Differential determines who ranks higher.
The next games will be played in March.
The final column above shows the global ranking of each team as compiled by computer for FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. The rankings are as of October.
This round ends next September after each team has played 10 games—home-and-away matches against each of the other five teams in its group.
The top two teams in each group go to the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.
The third-placed teams in each group play a home-and-away pair against each other. The winner then plays a home-and-away pair against the fourth-placed team from the region that takes in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The winner of that matchup goes to the finals in Russia. In other words, either four or five of the above Asian teams will go to the finals, in which 32 teams will appear.
The big innovation this year is that the elimination rounds for World Cup 2018 are also the elimination rounds for Asian Cup 2019.
In Round One, the lowest-ranked 12 Asian teams played home and away matches. For the six losers, that was the end of their World Cup hopes. The six winning teams joined the other 34 Asian teams (including Iran) in Round Two.
Those 40 teams were drawn into eight groups of five teams each. They played a double round-robin—that is, each played one home and one away game against the other four teams in the group—from June 2015 through March 2016. The winners of each group (Iran was one), plus the four runners-up with the best records a) qualified for the next Asian Cup and b) advanced to Round Three of the World Cup elimination series, which is the one now being played.
As for the Asian Cup, the next best 24 teams in the round completed last spring—that is, all but the worst four—will compete again to fill the remaining 12 slots in the Asian Cup. Since Iran already qualified by finishing first in its group in Round Two, it will not need to play any more Asian Cup elimination matches but will just move on to the Asian Cup finals in 2019.