October World Cup Qualifying Round-Up- Rest of the World

As the road to Russia continues here is a summary of how countries outside of the European Qualifiers are progressing.

Asian Qualifiers

The Asian Football confederation is on the third round of qualifying for the World Cup. There are 12 teams divided into two groups of six teams, and the top two in each will qualify automatically. The two third-placed teams will play each other and the winner will play the fourth-placed CONCACAF team.

Over the past week there has been a few surprising results. In Group A, Iran are top of the table; they have 10 points after the opening four games. A 1-0 home victory over South Korea continued their unbeaten start to the campaign.

Iran manger Carlos Queiroz was delighted with the result

“We earned a win against one of the best teams in Asia,” said Queiroz. “We are so happy to earn all three points as this win against a team like Korea Republic is worth so much."

Uzbekistan are second in Group A on nine points while South Korea are third with seven.

In Group B, Saudi Arabia lead the way following a 3-0 win over UAE. Their Dutch manager Bert van Marwijk has them two points ahead of Australia, who remain undefeated after a 1-1 draw with Japan in Melbourne.

The current standings are Saudi Arabia on 10 points, Australia have eight points and Japan are third with seven.

With plenty of games to go there may be a surprise World Cup qualifier from the Asian confederation.

CAF (Africa)

The African qualifiers are on the third round of qualifying. There are five groups of four teams and the winners of each will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Each Group has played just one match and current leaders are DR Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Egypt.

CONMEBOL (South America).

Perhaps the most historical region is the South American world cup qualifiers. The top four teams from a 10 team single group will qualify for the finals and the fifth-place team will play the winner of the Oceania Football Confederation qualifying competition for a place in Russia.

After 10 games Brazil are on top with 21 points while Uruguay are close behind on 20. Both Ecuador and Colombia are on 17 points while in fifth place Argentina are on 16 points.

The current top scorer is Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani with 7 goals. Next month sees Brazil play Argentina in the pick of Round 11's games.