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The road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup began with the draw for groups and qualifying matches. The five different zones – Europe, South America, Africa, North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) and Oceania – have been divided into pots within themselves and each of them slightly differ in the structure of their qualifying procedure.
The draw took place at Konstantin Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. 206 nations will wait with bated breaths to see how their teams will be drawn against others from the same zones and the ramifications of the draw on their World Cup hopes. In the process of qualification, at least 851 matches will be played.
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While European teams qualify directly for the World Cup finals from their 9 groups (some through a playoff), the lower ranked teams from the other 4 zones will compete in an Intercontinental playoff. The preliminary draw to decide who would face teams from which other continent revealed that the fourth best sides in Asia and North America will face each other, while the champions from Oceania meet the fifth best side from South America.
Europe
The European Qualifying group includes the hosts Russia and includes 13 qualification slots for the countries from this zone plus the hosts (14 on the whole). 52 member teams divided into 6 pots based on their FIFA ranking will be divided into 9 groups of 6 members each (Except 2 groups that will contain 5 teams).
Every group will contain 1 team from each of the 6 pots. The teams in each group will go through a round robin of home and away matches against the others in their group. 9 top teams from each group will qualify directly for the World Cup finals in Russia. The matches are expected to be played between 4 September 2016 and 10 October 2017.
The 8 best runner-ups from the 9 groups will go into a playoff to decide which 4 other teams join the first 9 and Russia. These games will be played between 9 and 14 November 2017 (expected dates).
South America
All 10 South American teams are placed in a single group. They follow the round-robin home and away games format as well. 4 top teams qualify directly for the main event in Russia, the fifth-placed team will face the Oceania zone winner to decide their fate.
The games will be spread apart between 4 September 2015 and 10 October 2017.
Africa
There are 53 participating member associations of which only 5 will qualify for the main event. Some teams are drawn into Round 1 and others into Round 2 of the qualifying games based on their international ranking. The teams in Round 1 will consist of teams from Pot 4 and Pot 5, while the Round 2 teams consist of Pot 1, 2, and 3 teams.
The 26 teams from Round 1 will contest each other over a two-legged tie to decide which 13 will progress to Round 2 consisting of 27 more teams. In Round 2, the 40 teams will then face off to decide the teams to feature in Round3.
The Draw
Somalia/Niger v Cameroon, South Sudan/Mauritania v Tunisia, Gambia/Namibia v Guinea, Sao Tome e Principe/Ethiopia v Congo, Chad/Sierra Leone v Egypt, Comoros/Lesotho v Ghana, Djibouti/Swaziland v Nigeria, Eritrea/Botswana v Mali, Seychelles/Burundi v Congo DR, Liberia/Guinea-Bissau v Ivory Coast, Central African Republic/Madagascar v Senegal, Mauritius/Kenya v Cape Verde, Tanzania/Malawi v Algeria, Sudan v Zambia, Libya v Rwanda, Morocco v Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique v Gabon, Benin v Burkina Faso, Togo v Uganda, Angola v South Africa
CONCACAF
The zone has 35 representatives. Only 3 will surely qualify directly for the World Cup 2018. The fourth placed member will face the fourth best from Asia to compete for their place in Russia.
The Round 1 games were completed in March 2015 between 14 teams and 7 advanced to the second round. In the second round, 20 teams played each other to narrow the number down to a further 10. IN Round 3, another 2 teams join the 10 and they went into 2 pots to be drawn against each other.
The winners will go into two groups in Round 4 where 6 og the top seeded teams are already drawn in the 2 groups, 3 in each. The Round 4 of games are to be played between 7 November 2015 to 6 September 2016.
Oceania
Of the 11 participating associations, only one will get the chance to compete for their place in Russia. They must face the fifth-placed team from South America to make the cut.
4 of the lowest ranked teams play each other in a round-robin format in the first round. The winner of that group will join the Group A in the second round of qualifying stages. The Round 2 games will be played between 28 May 2016 to 12 June 2016.
