2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round

The third round of AFC matches for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification was played from 1 September 2016 to 5 September 2017.

Format
A total of twelve teams which advanced from the second round (the eight group winners and the four 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 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams advanced to the fourth round.

Seeding
The draw for the third round was held on 12 April 2016, at 16:30 MST (UTC+8), at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The seeding were based on the FIFA World Rankings of April 2016 (shown in parentheses below). The twelve teams were seeded into six pots:


 * Pot 1 contained the teams ranked 1–2.
 * Pot 2 contained the teams ranked 3–4.
 * Pot 3 contained the teams ranked 5–6.
 * Pot 4 contained the teams ranked 7–8.
 * Pot 5 contained the teams ranked 9–10.
 * Pot 6 contained the teams ranked 11–12.

Each group contained one team from each of the six pots. The fixtures of each group were automatically decided based on the respective pot of each team.

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup. Italicised teams qualified for the fourth round.