AFC World Cup Qualifying fourth and final round explained

In the fourth and final round of the Asian World Cup qualifying there will be 10 teams.

From these remaining nations:

• 2 groups of 5 teams will be drawn
• each team will will play each other in that group twice, in home and away matches
• the top 2 countries in each group will go straight to the world cup
• the 2 third placed countries in each group will play-off in a home and away series to get the right to play-off against the winner of Oceania. This game will also be played in a home and away series.

Seeding

The qualifiers will be split into 3 pots of 2 teams, with the bottom 4 ranked nations grouped together in a separate pot. Due to Saudi Arabia and Japan being seeded equal 4th, there will be a random draw held to determine which pots they go into. Note that teams in the same pot are not able to be grouped together.

The four seeding Pots are:

Each group will include 1 team from each of Pots 1, 2 and 3, and 2 teams from Pot 4.