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.
Qualified teams
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.
Groups
Group A
Group B
Goalscorers
There were 129 goals scored in 60 matches, for an average of goals per match.
5 goals
Tomi Juric
Mohannad Abdul-Raheem
Nawaf Al-Abed
Ahmed Khalil
4 goals
Sardar Azmoun
Genki Haraguchi
Hassan Al-Haydos
Ali Mabkhout
3 goals
Mile Jedinak
Mathew Leckie
Mehdi Taremi
Mahmoud Al-Mawas
Omar Kharbin
2 goals
Gao Lin
Saad Abdul-Amir
Takuma Asano
Yuya Kubo
Akram Afif
Fahad Al-Muwallad
Mohammad Al-Sahlawi
Yahya Al-Shehri
Ki Sung-yueng
Koo Ja-cheol
Teerasil Dangda
Marat Bikmaev
1 goal
Tim Cahill
Jackson Irvine
Massimo Luongo
Tom Rogic
Trent Sainsbury
Hao Junmin
Wu Lei
Wu Xi
Xiao Zhi
Yu Dabao
Yu Hai
Reza Ghoochannejhad
Jalal Hosseini
Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Ayman Hussein
Mahdi Kamil
Justin Meram
Ahmed Yasin
Keisuke Honda
Yosuke Ideguchi
Shinji Kagawa
Hiroshi Kiyotake
Yasuyuki Konno
Shinji Okazaki
Yuya Osako
Hotaru Yamaguchi
Maya Yoshida
Ali Assadalla
Sebastián Soria
Salem Al-Dawsari
Taisir Al-Jassim
Salman Al-Moasher
Nasser Al-Shamrani
Omar Hawsawi
Hong Jeong-ho
Hwang Hee-chan
Ji Dong-won
Lee Chung-yong
Nam Tae-hee
Son Heung-min
Ahmad Al Salih
Omar Al Somah
Tamer Haj Mohamad
Pokklaw Anan
Tana Chanabut
Mongkol Tossakrai
Ismail Matar
Odil Ahmedov
Alexander Geynrikh
Egor Krimets
Otabek Shukurov
1 own goal
Zheng Zhi () Ahmad Ibrahim () Tanaboon Kesarat ()