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 12 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.

Matches

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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 5–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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.

Goalscorers
There were 24 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of goals per match.


 * 2 goals


 * 1 goal