| Tourney Name: | 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Matches: | 60 |
| Goals: | 129 |
| Top Scorer: | Tomi Juric Mohannad Abdul-Raheem Nawaf Al-Abed Ahmed Khalil (5 goals each) |
| Prevseason: | 2014 |
| Nextseason: | 2022 |
The third round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 1 September 2016 to 5 September 2017.[1]
A total of twelve teams which advanced from the second round (the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up) were divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams advanced to the fourth round.
| Group | width=220 | Winners | width=220 | Runners-up (Best 4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ||||
| B | — | |||
| C | ||||
| D | — | |||
| E | ||||
| F | ||||
| G | — | |||
| H | — |
The draw for the third round was held on 12 April 2016, at 16:30 MST (UTC+8), at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[2] [3]
The seeding were based on the FIFA World Rankings of April 2016 (shown in parentheses below).[4] The twelve teams were seeded into six pots:[5]
Each group contained one team from each of the six pots. The fixtures of each group were automatically decided based on the respective pot of each team.
Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup. Italicised teams qualified for the fourth round.