CONCACAF & CONMEBOL 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers fixtures determined

The North American and South American qualifiers have been determined today in St. Petersburg, Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

All the confederations had their qualification matches determined today in St. Petersburg, Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

CONCACAF

In North America, the 12 teams left were drawn into three groups comprised of four teams each. In these three groups, each team will play each other home and away from November of this year through September of 2016. The top two nations in each group advance to the six-team final round, otherwise known as the Hexagonal. The top three qualify for Russia 2018, and the fourth meets an Asianopponent in a playoff for another berth.

The United States will open World Cup qualifying in November in what appears to be quite an easy group, which includes Trinidad and Tobago. The other opponents in Group C will be eitherGuatemala or Antigua and Barbuda, and Aruba or St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The final opponents have yet to be determined as they have not completed their playoffs from the earlier leg of CONCACAF Qualifying.

Mexico is in Group A with Honduras, Canada or Belize, and El Salvador or Curacao. Costa Rica is in Group B with Panama,Jamaica or Nicaragua, and Haiti or Grenada.

CONMEBOL

In South America, ten countries 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.

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. And so, the first four matchdays are as followed for the rest of the year.

Matchday 1 (5–13 October 2015): Colombia  v  Peru, Chile  v  Brazil, Argentina  v  Ecuador, Venezuela  v  Paraguay, Bolivia  v  Uruguay

Matchday 2 (5–13 October 2015): Paraguay  v  Argentina, Brazil  v  Venezuela, Ecuador  v  Bolivia, Peru  v  Chile, Uruguay  v  Colombia

Matchday 3 (9–17 November 2015): Chile  v  Colombia, Argentina  v  Brazil, Ecuador  v  Uruguay, Bolivia  v  Venezuela, Peru  v  Paraguay

Matchday 4 (9-17 November 2015): Colombia  v  Argentina, Paraguay  v  Bolivia, Brazil  v  Peru, Venezuela  v  Ecuador, Uruguay  v  Chile

Inter-continental playoffs:

Fourth place CONCACAF vs. fifth place Asia
First place Oceania vs. fifth place South America