The second round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers began Thursday, with the continent’s heavyweights looking to book their places in the group stages of the tournament that is set to take place in Russia in 2018.

The four Asian teams that qualified in the 2014 World Cup – Australia, Japan, South Korea and Iran – are heavily expected to take three of the continent’s spots at the international tournament.

Group B leaders Australia begin their campaign away from home against Kyrgyzstan in a group that also includes Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Jordan.

Group E leaders Japan play Singapore at home after the Singaporean FA requested a switch because the match day coincides with the closing ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games the country is hosting. Their group includes Cambodia, Syria and Afghanistan.

In their opening match in Bangkok, South Korea take on Myanmar, who are banned from hosting matches after crowd trouble at a 2014 qualifier, in a group that also features Lebanon, Kuwait and Laos.

In Group D, Iran plays Turkmenistan on June 16 in a group that also includes India, Guam and Oman.

Group F is the only group that has four teams: Chinese Taipei, Iraq, Vietnam and Thailand, after FIFA banned Indonesia for government interference in the local football association.

The winners of the eight groups and four best runners-up are guaranteed a place in the third and final round of qualifiers – and also a spot at the 2019 Asian Cup. The remaining 12 teams are drawn into two groups of six teams where group winners and their runners-up qualify. The teams finishing third in the two groups face off into a two-legged playoff after which the winner advances to the intercontinental playoff for a place at the tournament, giving Asia four to five spots at the World Cup.

The teams will play again on June 16. They will then take a break and return to play in September.

Asia’s Arabs Hopeful

Saudi Arabia, who last reached the World Cup in 2006, leads an Arab contingent trying to return to the tournament after failing to reach its last two installments. The Saudis will host Palestine, despite the fact that the match was scheduled to take place in the West Bank, after telling their opponents that they could not travel to the territories.

The only Arab country that has made it into the last two installments of the World Cup was Algeria, who advanced from the group stages and were edged out by eventual champions Germany.

Algeria will be hoping to build on its success and be one of the five African teams that reach the World Cup. The qualifiers will be slightly different from previous years, as there will be three preliminary, two-legged rounds that reduce the number of nations to 20. The 20 nations will then be drawn into five groups of four teams. The group winners will qualify to the finals.

As tournament hosts Russia qualify automatically, Europe has 13 remaining spots in the 32-team competition. South America, Concacaf and Oceania have 4.5, 3.5 and 0.5 spots, respectively, which means that teams that finish fifth, fourth and first in the groups of their respective groups play an intercontinental playoff match to decide which will qualify.

Below are the matches in which Arab teams are playing today:

Bahrain v Philippines

Oman v India

Jordan v Tajikistan

Lebanon v Kuwait

Syria v Afghanistan

Qatar v Maldives

Yemen v North Korea

Saudi Arabia v Palestine