Dates 8 Oct 2015 – 10 Oct 2017 Location Estadio Hernando Siles Goals scored 173 | Top scorer Edinson Cavani Teams 10 Matches played 60 | |
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Similar 2018 FIFA World Cup, Copa América Centenario, 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2018 FIFA World Cup qualificati, 2016 Torneo Descentralizado | ||
The South American section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Russia, for national teams which are members of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL). A total of 4.5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 inter-confederation play-off slot) in the final tournament are available for CONMEBOL teams.
Contents
Format
The qualification structure is the same as the previous five tournaments. The ten teams will play in a league of home-and-away round-robin matches. The top four teams will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fifth-placed team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Unlike previous qualifying tournaments where the fixtures were pre-determined, the fixtures were determined by draw, which was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
For scheduling reasons, Argentina and Brazil were automatically positioned as Teams 4 and 5 respectively to ensure that no team has to play both of them on any double matchday. The remaining eight teams will be drawn into one of the remaining eight positions from Teams 1 to 10 (except 4 and 5).
Entrants
All 10 national teams from CONMEBOL entered qualification.
Schedule
There will be a total of 18 matchdays: four in 2015, eight in 2016, and six in 2017.
The inter-confederation play-offs are scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017.
Inter-confederation play-offs
The draw for the inter-confederation play-offs was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg. The fifth-placed team from CONMEBOL was drawn against the first-placed team from OFC, with the CONMEBOL team hosting the second leg.
Goalscorers
There have been 173 goals scored in 60 matches, for an average of 2.88 goals per match.