World Cup 2018 Qualification Gets Under Way

**Bi-honar** · 03-12-2015, 06:50 AM

Qualification for the 2018 WC got under way today with the Timor-Leste vs. Mongolia game in Asia as the very 1st game in all continents.

Today's results (return matches to be played in 5 days with the winners to be placed in Pot 5 for the draw on April 14th, which will include Iran):

Timor-Leste 4 - Mongolia 1
Cambodia 3 - Macau 0
Chinese Taipei 0 - Brunei 1
Sri Lanka 0 - Bhutan 1
India 2 - Nepal 0
Yemen 3 - Pakistan 1

**Bi-honar** · 03-12-2015, 07:02 AM

Also, as mostly related to this, the new FIFA ranking for March is out. The end of March matches will still be taken into account for the April 14th draw, but this is a good starting point for now (numbers are total points).

The good news is that most Arab teams are so far in Pot 2, so we won't end up in a group like the Asian Cup. The bad news is that we can end up in a group with Saudi Arabia/Iraq and N.Korea.

1 - Iran 692
2 - Japan 617
3 - Korea Republic 594
4 - Australia 549
5 - United Arab Emirates 523
6 - Uzbekistan 483
7 - China PR 423
8 - Oman 356

9 - Iraq 353
10 - Saudi Arabia 339
11 - Jordan 326
12 - Bahrain 319
13 - Qatar 300
14 - Kuwait 231
15 - Philippines 221
16 - Vietnam 220

17 - Maldives 214
18 - Afghanistan 203
19 - Palestine 194
20 - Tajikistan 192
21 - Thailand 189
22 - Turkmenistan 175
23 - Lebanon 164
24 - Korea DPR 149

**EKBATAN** · 03-12-2015, 09:20 AM

mongolia has all that grass land and they still suck at this game lol

**Abtin** · 03-12-2015, 09:36 AM

Can't wait for it all to begin

**perspolis#1** · 03-12-2015, 10:09 AM

Apparently with Bhutans win they have a perfect record in World Cup qualifying in their history

**zand** · 03-12-2015, 11:21 AM

Does anyone have a link to Bhutan vs Sri Lanka game? I hear it was a smashing game of football with dazzling display of skills.

**Kiarash** · 03-12-2015, 03:17 PM

Not that anybody cares, but Yemen won 3-1 vs Pakistan.

Watching the highlights, I can only shake my head when realizing how bad they football and some of these teams will make it since AFC extended the number of participants to 24 in the next Asian Cup.

**Kiarash** · 03-12-2015, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by zand

Does anyone have a link to Bhutan vs Sri Lanka game? I hear it was a smashing game of football with dazzling display of skills.

**Abtin** · 03-12-2015, 03:39 PM

Hopefully we will be grouped with a lot of these teams.

**O-ZoNe** · 03-12-2015, 04:25 PM

Where will Iraq's home games be? Will they play in Jordan? Any ideas if Syria will field a team because they will likely want to play in Iran.

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