Russia 2018 Asian Qualifiers Final Round Draw: Iran
Asian Football Confederation's Shin Man Gil draws Afghanistan for Group E in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers during the preliminary joint qualification round 2 draw in Kuala Lumpur, April 14, 2015. REUTERS/Olivia Harris
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Loading...AFC – KUALA LUMPUR, With Tuesday’s draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers Final Round now just around the corner, join the-afc.com as we take a look at Iran in the reckoning for a ticket to Russia.
IRAN
Iran had a mixed start to Preliminary Round 2 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers having drawn 1-1 twice at the midway stage, but a strong second half, in which the three-time Asian champions scored 15 times and conceded just one in a run of four straight wins, saw Iran comfortably top Group D six points clear of second-placed Oman.
After debuting at the FIFA World Cup finals in 1978, Iran qualified for the global game’s most prestigious tournament on three further occasions. They appeared for a second time in 1998, defeating the USA for their first ever World Cup win, before going on to take part in Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014, where Team Melli were unable to follow up that famous victory in Lyon with a second World Cup win.
At Tuesday’s draw, the 12 teams will be drawn into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away under the round-robin format.
The winner and runner-up of each group (four teams in total) will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia finals while the third-placed teams of each group (two teams in total) will advance to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Play-off Round.
The winner of the Asian Play-off Round (one team in total) will take on the side that finishes fourth in the fifth round of the CONCACAF qualifiers in a two-legged inter-confederation playoff.
The 12 nations, seeded based on the latest FIFA rankings which were released on April 7, will be drawn from six country pots as follows:
Pot 1: Iran (42nd), Australia (50th)
Pot 2: Korea Republic (56th), Japan (57th)
Pot 3: Saudi Arabia (60th), Uzbekistan (66th)
Pot 4: United Arab Emirates (68th), China PR (81st)
Pot 5: Qatar (83rd), Iraq (105th)
Pot 6: Syria (110th), Thailand (119th)
Draw Mechanics:
