{"id":29795,"date":"2017-11-17T20:42:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T04:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=29795"},"modified":"2017-11-17T20:42:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T04:42:05","slug":"asias-finest-will-fly-the-flag-in-russia-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2017\/11\/17\/asias-finest-will-fly-the-flag-in-russia-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia\u2019s finest will fly the flag in Russia 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFC – Kuala Lumpur, Having successfully negotiated the FIFA World Cup 2018 Play-offs, Australia will join the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic in next year\u2019s spectacle in Russia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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With Asia to be represented by a historic five nations at the FIFA World Cup for the first time ever, the-AFC.com<\/em><\/strong> takes a look at\u00a0their pedigree.<\/p>\n

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Islamic Republic of Iran<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking:<\/strong> 34
\nPrevious finals –<\/strong>\u00a04:\u00a01978, 1998, 2006, 2014
\nBest performance:<\/strong> Round 1 (1978, 1998, 2006, 2014)<\/p>\n

Iran were the first\u00a0Asian team to secure their place at the FIFA World Cup 2018.<\/p>\n

Currently the best-ranked Asian team, Team Melli will be aiming to advance past the group stage in Russia next year – having seen their interest end in the preliminary round in their previous appearances.<\/p>\n

The stat<\/strong>
\n1 –\u00a0<\/strong>A famous 2-1 defeat of USA at France 1998 marks Iran’s only win in their four previous FIFA World Cup appearances.<\/p>\n

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Australia\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking: <\/strong>43
\nPrevious finals –<\/strong>\u00a04: 1974, 2006, 2010, 2014
\nBest performance:<\/strong> Round of 16 (2006)<\/p>\n

After an emphatic 3-1 win over Honduras in the second leg of their Intercontinental Play-off in Sydney, Australia became the last Asian team to make the cut for Russia 2018.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos will be making their fifth appearance in the Finals and their best finish was in Germany 2006, in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

The stat
\n32<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The number of years between Australia\u2019s first and second World Cup appearances in 1974 and 2006.<\/p>\n

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Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking:<\/strong> 44
\nPrevious finals –<\/strong>\u00a05: 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014
\nBest performance:<\/strong> Round of 16 (2002, 2010)<\/p>\n

Russia 2018 will be Japan\u2019s sixth World Cup appearance, consistently qualifying for the Finals since 1998.<\/p>\n

The Samurai Blue have twice progressed from the group stages, being eliminated in the round of 16 in 2010 and in 2002, when they co-hosted with Korea Republic.<\/p>\n

\u200bThe stat
\n4<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Japan have won\u00a0four of their 17 matches at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

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Korea Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking:<\/strong> 62
\nPrevious finals –<\/strong>\u00a09:\u00a01954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014
\nBest performance:<\/strong> Semi-finals (2002)<\/p>\n

Arguably the most successful Asian team in terms of Finals appearance and best finishes, Russia 2018 will be Korea Republic\u2019s 10th overall and ninth consecutive appearance in the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The Taeguk Warriors claimed automatic qualification spot when they drew 0-0 against Uzbekistan to finish second in their group.<\/p>\n

The stat
\n8<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Korea Republic have featured in eight successive World Cups dating back to 1986.<\/p>\n

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Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking:<\/strong> 63
\nPrevious finals –<\/strong>\u00a04: 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006
\nBest performance:<\/strong> Round of 16 (1994)<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s last appearance in the World Cup was more than a decade ago in the 2006 Finals in Germany \u2013 missing the last two editions in South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014.<\/p>\n

The Saudis finished second in their qualifying group behind Japan with 19 points \u2013 piping Australia on goal difference who also had 19 points.<\/p>\n

The stat<\/strong>
\n13 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>The number of matches Saudi Arabia have played on the World Cup stage, winning two, drawing two and losing nine.<\/p>\n

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The 32 Qualifiers<\/strong><\/p>\n

ASIA:<\/strong> Australia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n

EUROPE<\/strong>: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Russia (hosts), Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

CONMEBOL: <\/strong>Argentina,\u00a0<\/strong>Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay<\/p>\n

CONCACAF:<\/strong>\u00a0Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama<\/p>\n

AFRICA:<\/strong>\u00a0Egypt, Morocco,\u00a0Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia<\/p>\n

The draw takes place in Moscow on December 1. The Finals are on June 14-July 15, 2018.<\/p>\n

Sources: FIFA.com, AFC<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – Kuala Lumpur, Having successfully negotiated the FIFA World Cup 2018 Play-offs, Australia will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1415,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}