All to play for in latest round of Russia 2018/UAE 2019 qualifiers: Group D

AFC – KUALA LUMPUR, Despite there only being two rounds left to go in the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 Asian Cup joint-qualifiers, there is still plenty to play for in each of groups.

Eight group winners will advance to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, as well as straight to the 2019 Asian Cup in United Arab Emirates, along with the four best runners-up.

The other four runners-up will progress to the third round of qualifying for the Asian Cup, along with all the third-placed teams and the four best fourth-placed teams.

Finally, the remaining sides will have to negotiate past two rounds of playoffs for one of the final eight spots in the Asian Cup third qualifying round.

Here, the-afc.com digests the qualifying scenario from Group D:

GROUP D
24 March: Iran v India, Oman v Guam
29 March: India v Turkmenistan, Iran v Oman

Currently in pole position with a three-point lead, Iran are on course to finish top of Group D and can move one step closer with victory over India on March 24.

Nevertheless, in the event that Oman beat Guam on the same day, the battle for first place will then go down to the wire with Iran and the Omanis facing off in Tehran five days later having played out a 1-1 draw in their earlier meeting.

That scenario would also end any hopes third-placed Turkmenistan have of creeping into the top two, although they have already sealed their berth in the Asian Cup third qualifying round.

Meanwhile, Guam – who have arguably been the surprise package of the qualifiers thus far – are currently the best-ranked fourth-placed team and could be hard to dislodge from the top four, even if they are beaten by Oman in their final qualifier.

There is still a slim possibility they could drop to fifth in Group D, in the unlikely event that bottom-placed India beat both Iran and Turkmenistan over the next week.