2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC first round
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 12–17 March 2015 |
| Teams | 12 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 24 (2 per match) |
| Attendance | 89,973 (7,498 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Chencho Gyeltshen ,  Chan Vathanaka ,  Sunil Chhetri ,  Chiquito do Carmo[note 1] (4 goals) |
The first round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (and 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification) was played from 12 to 23 March 2015.[1]
Format
A total of twelve teams (teams ranked 35–46 in the AFC entrant list) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.
Seeding
The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, 15:30 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[2]
The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 (shown in parentheses below).[3][4] The 12 teams were seeded into two pots:
- Pot A contained the teams ranked 1–6 (i.e., 35–40 in the AFC entrant list).
- Pot B contained the teams ranked 7–12 (i.e., 41–46 in the AFC entrant list).
Each tie contained a team from Pot A and a team from Pot B, with the team from Pot A hosting the first leg.
Note: Bolded teams qualified for the second round.
| Pot A | Pot B |
|---|---|
|
Summary
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India |
2–0 |  Nepal |
2–0 | 0–0 |
Yemen  |
3–1 |  Pakistan |
3–1 | 0–0 |
| Timor-Leste |
0–6[N 1] |  Mongolia |
0–3[N 1] | 0–3[N 1] |
| Cambodia |
4–1 |  Macau |
3–0 | 1–1 |
Chinese Taipei  |
2–1 |  Brunei |
0–1 | 2–0 |
Sri Lanka  |
1–3 | Bhutan |
0–1 | 1–2 |
- Notes
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India won 2–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.
| Pakistan |
0–0 | Yemen |
|---|---|---|
| Report (FIFA) Report (AFC) |
|
Khalifa Sports City Stadium, Isa Town (Bahrain)[note 3]
Attendance: 2,200 Referee: Ali Sabah Adday Al-Qaysi (Iraq) |
Yemen won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.
Timor-Leste won the first leg 4–1 and the second leg 1–0, thus winning 5–1 on aggregate and advancing to the Second round. On 12 December 2017 FIFA awarded both matches 3–0 to Mongolia due to Timor-Leste fielding numerous ineligible players.[13] However, this was long after the Second round had been played, so Timor-Leste advanced and Mongolia were not reinstated.
Cambodia won 4–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.
| Brunei |
0–2 | Chinese Taipei |
|---|---|---|
| Report (FIFA) Report (AFC) |
|
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Stadium, Bandar Seri Begawan
Attendance: 18,000 Referee: Turki Al-Khudhayr (Saudi Arabia) |
Chinese Taipei won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.
Bhutan won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.
Goalscorers
There were 24 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 2 goals per match.
- 2 goals
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- 1 goal
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Notes
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- Official FIFA World Cup website
- Qualifiers – Asia: Round 1, FIFA.com
- FIFA World Cup, the-AFC.com
- AFC Asian Cup, the-AFC.com
- Preliminary Joint Qualification 2018 Archived 2019-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, stats.the-AFC.com
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