World Cup: Asia

South Korea and Uzbekistan played 0-0 and Syria drew Iran (2-2), which means South Korea finished second and qualified, and Syria finished third and will play playff against other third and possibly team from North America.

In group B, Australia won with 2-1 against Thailand after Thailand had equalized in 82nd minuted. As Australia failed scoring more goals and catching up on the goal difference, a win was sufficient for Saudi against Japan, and in 61st minute Al-Muwallad scored the winning 1-0 goal and Saudi had secured a spot in Russia.

Australia and Syria will now play two-match playoff. Our model predicts Australia having 79% chance to win that and go up against fourth team from North or Central America, currently predicted to be Panama. The model gives Australia 49% chance to go all the way to Russia, while Syria only have 7% chance.

Group A	m	+/-	points	avg. simulated p	Round 4	Playoff	World Cup
Iran	10	+8	22	22.0	100%	100%	100%
South Korea	10	+1	15	15.0	100%	100%	100%
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Syria	10	+1	13	13.0	100%	20.8%	6.7%
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Uzbekistan	10	-1	13	13.0	-
China	10	-2	12	12.0	-
Qatar	10	-7	7	7.0	-

Group B	m	+/-	points	avg. simulated p	Round 4	Playoff	World Cup
Japan	10	+10	20	20.0	100%	100%	100%
Saudi Arabia	10	+7	19	19.0	100%	100%	100%
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Australia	10	+5	19	19.0	100%	79.2%	48.4%
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United Arab Em	10	-3	13	13.0	-
Iraq	10	-1	11	11.0	-
Thailand	10	-18	2	2.0	-