# 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round

The third round of AFC matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 2 September 2021 to 29 March 2022.

## Format

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.

## Qualified teams

| Group (Second round) | Winners | Best 5 Runners-up |
| A | Syria | China |
| B | Australia | — |
| C | Iran | Iraq |
| D | Saudi Arabia | — |
| E | Qatar | Oman |
| F | Japan | — |
| G | United Arab Emirates | Vietnam |
| H | South Korea | Lebanon |

## Draw and seeding

The draw for the third round was held on 1 July 2021 at 15:00 MST (UTC+8), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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).
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.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Japan (24) Iran (26) | Australia (35) South Korea (36) | Saudi Arabia (61) United Arab Emirates (68) |
| Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
| Iraq (70) China (71) | Oman (79) Syria (80) | Vietnam (92) Lebanon (98) |

## Schedule

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, 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.
| 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 |

## Groups
### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | Iran | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 4 | +11 | 25 | 2022 FIFA World Cup | — | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| 2 | South Korea | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 3 | +10 | 23 | 2022 FIFA World Cup | 2–0 | — | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 12 | Fourth round | 0–1 | 1–0 | — | 2–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| 4 | Iraq | 10 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 12 | −6 | 9 | | 0–3 | 0–3 | 1–0 | — | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| 5 | Syria | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 16 | −7 | 6 | | 0–3 | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | — | 2–3 |
| 6 | Lebanon | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 13 | −8 | 6 | | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 0–3 | — |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | Saudi Arabia | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 23 | 2022 FIFA World Cup | — | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 3–2 | 3–1 |
| 2 | Japan | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 22 | 2022 FIFA World Cup | 2–0 | — | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| 3 | Australia | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 9 | +6 | 15 | Fourth round | 0–0 | 0–2 | — | 3–1 | 3–0 | 4–0 |
| 4 | Oman | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 14 | | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–2 | — | 2–0 | 3–1 |
| 5 | China | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 19 | −10 | 6 | | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | — | 3–2 |
| 6 | Vietnam | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 19 | −11 | 4 | | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 3–1 | — |

## Goalscorers

There were 122 goals scored in 60 matches, for an average of 2.03 goals per match.
4 goals
* Wu Lei
* Alireza Jahanbakhsh
* Mehdi Taremi
* Junya Itō
* Saleh Al-Shehri
* Son Heung-min
3 goals
* Mitchell Duke
* Sardar Azmoun
* Aymen Hussein
* Abdullah Fawaz
* Firas Al-Buraikan
* Ali Mabkhout
* Nguyễn Tiến Linh
2 goals
* Martin Boyle
* Awer Mabil
* Jamie Maclaren
* Ali Gholizadeh
* Kaoru Mitoma
* Yuya Osako
* Mohamad Kdouh
* Soony Saad
* Issam Al Sabhi
* Salem Al-Dawsari
* Sami Al-Najei
* Kwon Chang-hoon
* Alaa Al Dali
* Omar Al Somah
* Omar Khribin
* Caio Canedo
* Hồ Tấn Tài
1 goal
* Craig Goodwin
* Rhyan Grant
* Ajdin Hrustic
* Riley McGree
* Aaron Mooy
* Tom Rogic
* Aloísio
* Wu Xi
* Xu Xin
* Zhang Yuning
* Zhu Chenjie
* Ehsan Hajsafi
* Ahmad Nourollahi
* Amir Al-Ammari
* Hussein Ali Al-Saedi
* Takumi Minamino
* Ao Tanaka
* Maya Yoshida
* Maher Sabra
* Arshad Al-Alawi
* Rabia Al-Alawi
* Khalid Al-Hajri
* Amjad Al-Harthi
* Mohsin Al-Khaldi
* Salaah Al-Yahyaei
* Yasser Al-Shahrani
* Cho Gue-sung
* Hwang Hee-chan
* Hwang In-beom
* Jeong Woo-yeong
* Kim Jin-su
* Kim Young-gwon
* Lee Jae-sung
* Mahmoud Al Baher
* Mohammad Al Marmour
* Mardik Mardikian
* Harib Al-Maazmi
* Yahya Al Ghassani
* Nguyễn Quang Hải
* Nguyễn Thanh Bình
* Phan Văn Đức
1 own goal
* Aziz Behich (against Japan)
* Mohammed Al-Attas (against Iraq)