2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC first round

The first round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (and 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification) was played from 12 to 23 March 2015.

Format
A total of twelve teams (teams ranked 35–46 in the AFC entrant list) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.

Seeding
The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, 15:30 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 (shown in parentheses below). The 12 teams were seeded into two pots:
 * Pot A contained the teams ranked 1–6 (i.e., 35–40 in the AFC entrant list).
 * Pot B contained the teams ranked 7–12 (i.e., 41–46 in the AFC entrant list).

Each tie contained a team from Pot A and a team from Pot B, with the team from Pot A hosting the first leg.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the second round.

Summary

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 * Notes

Matches
India won 2–0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Yemen won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Timor-Leste won the first leg 4–1 and the second leg 1–0, thus winning 5–1 on aggregate and advancing to the Second round. On 12 December 2017 FIFA awarded both matches 3–0 to Mongolia due to Timor-Leste fielding numerous ineligible players. However, this was long after the Second round had been played, so Timor-Leste advanced and Mongolia were not reinstated.

Cambodia won 4–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Chinese Taipei won 2–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Bhutan won 3–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.