Asian giants Iran were clubbed with South Korea in the draw of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers final round, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced here on Tuesday.
Apart from Iran, the highest ranked Asian team in the world, and South Korea, Uzbekistan, China, Qatar and Syria were clubbed in Group A, reports Xinhua news agency.
Following is the draw for the qualifiers (latest rankings in brackets):
Group A: Iran (42nd), South Korea (56th), Uzbekistan (66th), China (81st), Qatar (83rd), Syria (110th)
Group B: Australia (50th), Japan (57th), Saudi Arabia (60th), the United Arab Emirates (68th), Iraq (105th), Thailand (119th).
According to the AFC, the six teams in each group will 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 World Cup in Russia while the third-placed teams of each group (two teams in total) will advance to the play-off round.