2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

Tournament details
Dates	8 October 2015 – 10 October 2017
Teams	10 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	90
Goals scored	242 (2.69 per match)
Attendance	3,365,010 (37,389 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Edinson Cavani (10 goals)
← 2014 2022 →

Qualification for championships (CONMEBOL)
FIFA World Cup 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026
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The South American section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup 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 were available for CONMEBOL teams.^[1]

Two-time defending Copa América champions Chile did not qualify for 2018 FIFA World Cup after a 3–0 loss to Brazil on the final day of qualifying campaign, resulting in a sixth-place finish. As a result, following intercontinental play-offs against the record five-time OFC Nations Cup champions New Zealand, Peru qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1982.

The qualification structure was the same as for the previous five tournaments. The ten teams played in a league of home-and-away round-robin matches. The top four teams qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the fifth-placed team advanced 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.^[2]

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.^[3][4] The remaining eight teams were drawn into one of the remaining eight positions from Teams 1 to 10 (except 4 and 5).

All ten national teams from CONMEBOL entered qualification.^[5]

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the World Cup. Peru advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Draw position[6]	Team	FIFA ranking at start of event[7]
1	Colombia	5
2	Chile	9
3	Paraguay	61
4	Argentina	1
5	Brazil	7
6	Ecuador	31
7	Venezuela	69
8	Bolivia	67
9	Peru	50
10	Uruguay	20

There were a total of 18 matchdays: four in 2015, eight in 2016, and six in 2017.^[8]

2015 Matchday Date Matchday 1 5–13 October 2015 Matchday 2 Matchday 3 9–17 November 2015 Matchday 4

2016 Matchday Date Matchday 5 21–29 March 2016 Matchday 6 Matchday 7 29 August – 6 September 2016 Matchday 8 Matchday 9 3–11 October 2016 Matchday 10 Matchday 11 7–15 November 2016 Matchday 12

2017 Matchday Date Matchday 13 20–28 March 2017 Matchday 14 Matchday 15 28 August – 5 September 2017 Matchday 16 Matchday 17 2–10 October 2017 Matchday 18

The inter-confederation play-offs were scheduled to be played between 6–14 November 2017.^[9]

The fixtures for CONMEBOL qualification were decided based on the draw positions, as follows:

Matchday Fixtures Matchday 1 1 v 9, 2 v 5, 4 v 6, 7 v 3, 8 v 10 Matchday 2 3 v 4, 5 v 7, 6 v 8, 9 v 2, 10 v 1 Matchday 3 2 v 1, 4 v 5, 6 v 10, 8 v 7, 9 v 3 Matchday 4 1 v 4, 3 v 8, 5 v 9, 7 v 6, 10 v 2 Matchday 5 2 v 4, 5 v 10, 6 v 3, 8 v 1, 9 v 7 Matchday 6 1 v 6, 3 v 5, 4 v 8, 7 v 2, 10 v 9 Matchday 7 1 v 7, 3 v 2, 4 v 10, 6 v 5, 8 v 9 Matchday 8 2 v 8, 5 v 1, 7 v 4, 9 v 6, 10 v 3 Matchday 9 3 v 1, 5 v 8, 6 v 2, 9 v 4, 10 v 7

Matchday Fixtures Matchday 10 1 v 10, 2 v 9, 4 v 3, 7 v 5, 8 v 6 Matchday 11 1 v 2, 3 v 9, 5 v 4, 7 v 8, 10 v 6 Matchday 12 2 v 10, 4 v 1, 6 v 7, 8 v 3, 9 v 5 Matchday 13 1 v 8, 3 v 6, 4 v 2, 7 v 9, 10 v 5 Matchday 14 2 v 7, 5 v 3, 6 v 1, 8 v 4, 9 v 10 Matchday 15 2 v 3, 5 v 6, 7 v 1, 9 v 8, 10 v 4 Matchday 16 1 v 5, 3 v 10, 4 v 7, 6 v 9, 8 v 2 Matchday 17 1 v 3, 2 v 6, 4 v 9, 7 v 10, 8 v 5 Matchday 18 3 v 7, 5 v 2, 6 v 4, 9 v 1, 10 v 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	18	12	5	1	41	11	+30	41	2018 FIFA World Cup		—	2–2	3–0	2–1	3–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	5–0	3–1
2	Uruguay	18	9	4	5	32	20	+12	31			1–4	—	0–0	3–0	1–0	3–0	4–0	2–1	4–2	3–0
3	Argentina	18	7	7	4	19	16	+3	28			1–1	1–0	—	3–0	0–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1
4	Colombia	18	7	6	5	21	19	+2	27			1–1	2–2	0–1	—	2–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	1–0	2–0
5	Peru	18	7	5	6	27	26	+1	26	Inter-confederation play-offs		0–2	2–1	2–2	1–1	—	3–4	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–2
6	Chile	18	8	2	8	26	27	−1	26			2–0	3–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	—	0–3	2–1	3–0	3–1
7	Paraguay	18	7	3	8	19	25	−6	24			2–2	1–2	0–0	0–1	1–4	2–1	—	2–1	2–1	0–1
8	Ecuador	18	6	2	10	26	29	−3	20			0–3	2–1	1–3	0–2	1–2	3–0	2–2	—	2–0	3–0
9	Bolivia	18	4	2	12	16	38	−22	14			0–0	0–2	2–0	2–3	0–3	1–0	1–0	2–2	—	4–2
10	Venezuela	18	2	6	10	19	35	−16	12			0–2	0–0	2–2	0–0	2–2	1–4	0–1	1–3	5–0	—

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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.^[3] The fifth-placed team from CONMEBOL was drawn against the first-placed team from OFC, with the CONMEBOL team hosting the second leg.^[16]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
New Zealand	0–2	Peru	0–0	0–2

The following five teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Brazil	Winners	28 March 2017	20 (all) (1930, 1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
Uruguay	Runners-up	10 October 2017	12 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1990, 2002, 2010, 2014)
Argentina	Third place	10 October 2017	16 (1930, 1934, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
Colombia	Fourth place	10 October 2017	5 (1962, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2014)
Peru	OFC v CONMEBOL play-off winners	15 November 2017	4 (1930, 1970, 1978, 1982)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

There were 242 goals scored in 90 matches, for an average of 2.69 goals per match.

10 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals