South Korea secured a ninth straight appearance at the World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Uzbekistan here on Tuesday. The draw earned the Koreans a point that sealed second place in Group A of Asia’s qualifying competition behind the already-qualified Iran.
Saudi Arabia also claimed its place at the finals, for the first time since 2006, in Russia next year with a 1-0 victory over a Japanese side that has already reached the finals.
The result pushed Australia into third in Group B and a place in the playoffs, where it will meet Syria, which drew 2-2 with Iran to finish third in Group A.
In South America, Argentina needed a second-half own goal to help it snatch a 1-1 draw against already-eliminated Venezuela while Chile crashed to a 1-0 defeat against Bolivia.
The results left 2014 World Cup finalist Argentina and reigning Copa America champion Chile outside of the automatic qualifying places and sets up a nail-biting final two rounds of matches next month.
Argentina is fifth in the standings with 24 points from 16 games while Chile is sixth with 23 points.
Immobile to the rescue
In Europe, a Ciro Immobile goal got Italy back to winning ways in a 1-0 victory over Israel to move it closer to the 2018 World Cup.
The results: AFRICA: Group A: Democratic Republic of Congo 2 (Mbemba 9, Mpoku 47) drew with Tunisia 2 (Moke 77-own goal, Badri 79).
ASIA:Group A: Iran 2 (Sardar Azmoun 45, 64) drew with Syria 2 (Tamer Mohamad 13, Omar Al Soma 90+3); Qatar 1 (Akram Afif 47) lost to China 2 (Xiao Zhi 74, Wu Lei 83); Uzbekistan 0 drew with South Korea 0.
Group B: Iraq 1 (Ayman Hussein 29) bt UAE 0; Saudi Arabia 1 (Fahad Al Muwallad 63) bt Japan 0.
EUROPE: Group D: Republic of Ireland 0 lost to Serbia 1 (Kolarov 55).
Group G: Italy 1 (Immobile 53) bt Israel 0; Liechtenstein 0 lost to Spain 8 (Ramos 3, Morata 15, 54, Isco 16, Silva 39, Aspas 51, 63, Goppel 89-og); Macedonia 1 (Trajkovski 78-pen) drew with Albania 1 (Roshi 52).
Group I: Kosovo 0 lost to Finland 1 (Pukki 83); Iceland 2 (G. Sigurdsson 47, 66) bt Ukraine 0; Turkey 1 (Tosun 75) bt Croatia 0.
SOUTH AMERICA: Bolivia 1 (Arce 59-pen) bt Chile 0; Colombia 1 (Falcao 56) drew with Brazil 1 (Willian 45+2); Ecuador 1 (E. Valencia 79-pen) lost to Peru 2 (Flores 73, Hurtado 76); Argentina 1 (Feltscher 54-og) drew with Venezuela 1 (Murillo 51); Paraguay 1 (Romero 88) lost to Uruguay 2 (Valverde 76, Gomez 80-og).
CONCACAF region: Honduras 1 (Quioto 27) drew with United States 1 (Wood 85).