| Tourney Name: | 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Matches: | 60 |
| Goals: | 122 |
| Top Scorer: | Wu Lei Alireza Jahanbakhsh Mehdi Taremi Junya Itō Saleh Al-Shehri Son Heung-min (4 goals each) |
| Prevseason: | 2018 |
| Nextseason: | 2026 |
The third round of AFC matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 2 September 2021 to 29 March 2022.[1] [2] [3]
The twelve teams that advanced from the second round (the seven group winners excluding Qatar and the five 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 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams advanced to the fourth round. World Cup hosts Qatar won Group E in the second round (which meant they advanced to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup finals) but were not required to qualify for the World Cup.
| Group | width=220 | Winners | width=220 | Best 5 Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ||||
| B | — | |||
| C | ||||
| D | — | |||
| E | ||||
| F | — | |||
| G | ||||
| H |
The draw for the third round was held on 1 July 2021 at 15:00 MST (UTC+8), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[4]
The seeding for the draw was based on a special release of the FIFA Men's World Rankings for Asian teams on 18 June 2021 (shown in parentheses below).[5]
Each group contained one team from each of the six pots.
Note: Bolded teams qualified directly for the World Cup. Italicised teams qualified for the fourth round.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, FIFA announced on 12 August 2020 that the upcoming qualifying matches originally scheduled for 2020 were moved to 2021,[6] and on 11 November, the AFC Competitions Committee also announced that the final round of the Asian qualifiers would begin in September 2021 and be finished by March 2022.[7]
| Matchday | Date | Original date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matchday 1 | 2 September 2021 | 3 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 2 | 7 September 2021 | 8 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 3 | 7 October 2021 | 13 October 2020 | |
| Matchday 4 | 12 October 2021 | 12 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 5 | 11 November 2021 | 17 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 6 | 16 November 2021 | 25 March 2021 | |
| Matchday 7 | 27 January 2022 | 30 March 2021 | |
| Matchday 8 | 1 February 2022 | 8 June 2021 | |
| Matchday 9 | 24 March 2022 | 7 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 10 | 29 March 2022 | 12 October 2021 |