World Cup 2018 Qualifiers match days and schedule announced

[Kiarash]

The World Cup 2018 Qualifiers match days and schedule are announced.

Third Round of Qualifiers (40 teams, 8 groups of 5)

M1: 11-JUN-2015
M2: 16-JUN-2015
M3: 03-SEP-2015
M4: 08-SEP-2015
M5: 08-OCT-2015
M6: 13-OCT-2015
M7: 12-NOV-2015
M8: 17-NOV-2015
M9: 24-MAR-2016
M10: 29-MAR-2016

Fourth Round of Qualifiers (12 teams, 2 groups of 6)

M1: 01-SEP-2016
M2: 06-SEP-2016
M3: 06-OCT-2016
M4: 11-OCT-2016
M5: 15-NOV-2016
M6: 23-MAR-2017
M7: 28-MAR-2017
M8: 13-JUN-2017
M9: 31-AUG-2017
M10: 05-SEP-2017

Asian Qualifiers Play-Offs

L1: 05-OCT-2017
L2: 10-OCT-2017

Intercontinental Play-Offs

L1: 09-NOV-2017
L2: 14-NOV-2017



Source: http://www.the-afc.com/en/component/...tml?Itemid=284

[Kiarash]

Few notes:

-Iran gets a bye to the Third Round because they qualified for the World Cup, just like Japan / South Korea / Australia.

-Instead of the 8 usual games we played in the last round of the WCQ, we will play 10 because AFC partly merged the Asian Cup 2019 qualifiers with the WCQ.

[persepolisfan]

What does partly merged mean?

[Kiarash]

Re: World Cup 2018 Qualifiers match days and schedule announced

What does partly merged mean?

They merged 2 ACQ match days with WCQ 4th round. Therefore 10 matches will be played instead of the usual 8 matches.

[CHaMiLLionaire]

So now the top two out of 5 qualify from the first round to the final round...and top two from the final group out of six qualify to the world cup?
Seems much tougher than last time.


EDIT: There will be forty teams, which will be divided into eight groups of five. Twelve teams will qualify for the Second Round: the winner of each group and the best four runners-up. These 12 teams will also qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

I'm assuming we will be grouped with a bunch of minnows like tajikistan,guam etc...

[Kiarash]

So now the top two out of 5 qualify from the first round to the final round...and top two from the final group out of six qualify to the world cup?

Seems much tougher than last time.

Basically...we will get grouped with 5 other teams in the fourth round group, either we will get a 6-point guarantee (something like Thailand) or we have bad luck and get the likes of Iraq/Jordan.

[CHaMiLLionaire]

We should easily qualify to the final round... 40 teams in 5 groups of 8 means even the worst of the worst will participate. Seed 4 5 6 and will probably something like india, lebanon, tajikistan, afghanistan...
If we seed the top 8 of Asia it will be something like : Iran, Japan, Australia, Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Uzbekistan, Jordan.

It just means we will avoid all these teams, and probably end up with one of Qatar/Oman/Kuwait/Lebanon... and then the rest is teams like cambodia, myanmar, india.

So unless I am misunderstanding the system, expect 10-0 games to be quite common.

Here are the 40 teams...
Afghanistan
Australia1
Bahrain2
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
China PR3
Chinese Taipei4
Guam
Hong Kong5(a)
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq2
Japan♣
Jordan2
Korea DPR6(a)
Korea Republic6(b)
Kuwait2
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon2
Macau5(b)
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Northern Mariana Islands7,8
Oman2
Pakistan
Palestine2,9
Philippines
Qatar2
Saudi Arabia2
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Syria2
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates2
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen2

[saeed_noro]

[teammelli91]

I can't wait!