They will be drawn into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away under the round-robin format.
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Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general secretary Dato Windsor John (C) shows a ballot during the draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian Qualifiers Final Round in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12 April 2016.
In the group stage before the final round, China had nearly been eliminated, which forced the Chinese Football Association to sack French head coach Alain Perrin.
Iran will open against Qatar at home on September 1.
After debuting at the FIFA World Cup finals in 1978, Iran qualified for the global game’s most prestigious tournament on three further occasions.
Meanwhile, as the host of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar is no doubt to play all out to qualify the 2018 edition. “South Korea is very strong and we have Qatar too”. Asian Cup champion Australia and Japan have been grouped together in the last round of Asian qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.Postecoglou told AFP that all the games will be “challenging”, especially with Japan. We will also collect information as much as possible. “They are young and talented but no experience”, he said.
In the year 2013, the CFA had planned to bid for the AFC Asian Cup 2019 but gave it up later.
“But I am sure we will be ready for it”, he added.
While Iran remain the top Asian side in FIFA World Rankings at 42nd in the world, Gao Hongbo’s men will undoubtedly be happy to have avoided facing Australia and Japan. Only the top two sides are guaranteed to progress to the World Cup. “The last one spot will be vied by Iran, China and Uzbekistan”, he said.
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Queiroz said playing against China in particular would be hard and the team was making huge improvements. They appeared for a second time in 1998, defeating the United States of America for their first ever World Cup win, before going on to take part in Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014, where Team Melli were unable to follow up that famous victory in Lyon with a second World Cup win.
