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.
There were a total of 18 matchdays: four in 2015, eight in 2016, and six in 2017.[8]
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:
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]
The following five teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the final tournament.
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
1 goal
Dani Alves Lucas Lima Marcelo Miranda Roberto Firmino
Lucas Biglia Ramiro Funes Mori Gonzalo Higuaín Ezequiel Lavezzi Nicolás Otamendi
Gilbert Álvarez Rudy Cardozo Alejandro Chumacero Yasmani Duk Marcelo Moreno Ronald Raldes
Felipe Gutiérrez
Abel Aguilar Juan Cuadrado Teófilo Gutiérrez Yerry Mina Sebastián Pérez Macnelly Torres
Gabriel Achilier Michael Arroyo Frickson Erazo Ángel Mena Arturo Mina Jefferson Montero Cristian Ramírez Antonio Valencia
Júnior Alonso Lucas Barrios Édgar Benítez Víctor Cáceres Óscar Cardozo Paulo da Silva Richard Ortiz Cristian Riveros Ángel Romero Óscar Romero Antonio Sanabria Bruno Valdez.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Peru_(state).svg.png){kind=small}
André Carrillo Paolo Hurtado Christian Ramos Raúl Ruidíaz Renato Tapia
Sebastián Coates Abel Hernández Nicolás Lodeiro Álvaro Pereira Carlos Sánchez Federico Valverde.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Venezuela_(state).svg.png){kind=small}
Richard Blanco Yangel Herrera Juanpi Jacobo Kouffati Jhon Murillo Mario Rondón Salomón Rondón Christian Santos1 own goal
Marquinhos (against Colombia) Arturo Vidal (against Paraguay) David Ospina (against Peru) Édgar Benítez (against Peru) Diego Godín (against Bolivia) Gastón Silva (against Bolivia) Rolf Feltscher (against Argentina)2 own goals
Gustavo Gómez (against Bolivia and Uruguay)