Korea Republic will face teams from the Middle East in the final round of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The official draw for the final group stage took place at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday. As the continent’s fourth ranked team according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking as of June, Korea Republic were allocated in Pot 2 along with Australia. Paulo Bento’s side were then pitted against Iran, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in Group A, whilst Japan, Australia, China PR, Oman and Vietnam were drawn in Group B.

The final round of qualifying consists of two groups of six teams apiece, with each side playing ten matches on a home-and-away basis from September.

Should the fixtures be confirmed on a home-and-away basis according to the schedule published on the official website of FIFA, the matchdays for the final round are as follows:

2021: 2 September, 7 September, 7 October, 12 October, 11 November, 16 November

2022: 27 January, 1 February, 24 March, 29 March

The tickets to the FIFA World Cup finals allocated to Asia are 4.5: The winners and the runners-up from each group qualify for the finals, with third-placed teams facing one another for the rights to advance to the intercontinental play-off on a home-and-away basis. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament proper will kick off in November next year.

Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

Final Round draw results

Group A – Iran, Korea Republic, UAE, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon

Group B – Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China PR, Oman, Vietnam

Asian Qualifiers Final Round fixtures

2 September 2021: Korea Republic v Iraq

9 September 2021: Lebanon v Korea Republic

7 October 2021: Korea Republic v Syria

12 October 2021: Iran v Korea Republic

11 November 2021: Korea Republic v UAE

16 November 2021: Iraq v Korea Republic

27 January 2022: Korea Republic v Lebanon

1 February 2022: Syria v Korea Republic

24 March 2022: Korea Republic v Iran

29 March 2022: UAE v Korea Republic

* Teams on the left are to play as hosts