Australia, needing to avoid defeat by five clear goals, fought back to beat Saudi Arabia 2-1 in their Group C tie at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.

The win meant Australia finished second behind Japan, who impressed in a 6-0 win against Indonesia. Japan accumulated 23 points, four more than Australia with Saudi Arabia a further six adrift.

Saudi Arabia, together with Indonesia, will continue their bid to feature at next year's global showpiece in the playoffs.

With Korea Republic and Jordan having already confirmed their tickets to the FIFA World Cup, all eyes were on the Palestine-Oman tie with the latter only needing to avoid defeat to advance to the playoffs.

That was sealed in dramatic fashion, with Issam Al Sabhi netting from the penalty spot deep into time added on to salvage a 1-1 draw and break Palestinian hearts.

Iraq defeated Jordan 1-0 to finish third, with the former to now vie for a place in the Finals via the playoffs.

With the automatic qualifiers and playoff sides already decided, the focus was on whether Islamic Republic of Iran would be pipped to the Group A top spot by Uzbekistan.

Iran, however, turned on the power in the second half to defeat DPR Korea 3-0, with Uzbekistan also cruising past Qatar with the same score line.

That meant Iran topped Group A with 23 points, two ahead of Uzbekistan, who will be featuring in their first FIFA World Cup Finals.

United Arab Emirates - held 1-1 by Kyrgyz Republic - finished third on 15 points, two ahead of Qatar with both sides having already sealed their places in the playoffs.

The playoffs, which will see the six teams divided into two groups, will be contested in October.

The top team from each group will book their tickets to the FIFA World Cup while the two second-placed sides will face off, with the winners to advance to the Inter-Confederation playoff for a final shot at qualifying for the global showpiece.

Uzbekistan 3-0 Qatar
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Kyrgyz Republic 1-1 United Arab Emirates
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IR Iran 3-0 DPR Korea
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Group B
Korea Republic 4-0 Kuwait
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Jordan 0-1 Iraq
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Palestine 1-1 Oman
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Japan 6-0 Indonesia
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China PR 1-0 Bahrain
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Saudi Arabia 1-2 Australia
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