The twelve teams that advanced from the second round (the seven group winners excluding Qatar and the five best group runners-up) were divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams will advance to the fourth round. World Cup hosts Qatar won Group E in the second round (which meant they advanced to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup finals) but were not required to qualify for the World Cup.
Each group contains one team from each of the six pots. The fixtures of each group will be automatically decided based on the respective pot of each team.
Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup. Italicised teams qualified for the fourth round.
Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A and B. Teams from each pot were assigned to the positions of their groups following by number orders of group stage, for example Pot 1 team were assigned to A1, and continued.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia, FIFA announced on 12 August 2020 that the upcoming qualifying matches originally scheduled for 2020 were moved to 2021,[৬] and on 11 November, the AFC Competitions Committee also announced that the final round of the Asian qualifiers will begin in September 2021 and be finished by March 2022.[৭]
↑On the AFC's official YouTube page, "The AFC Hub," it is referred to as the Final Round.
↑Qatar have already qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup as tournament hosts and were competing in the second round to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
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