two groups of four teams each. Teams played home-and-away games with the other teams in their group, and the top two teams qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, the third-placed teams entered a play-off to determine who would contest the AFC–CONCACAF play-off. Group 1 Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Uzbekistan advanced to the AFC playoffs. Group 2 Japan and Iran qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Bahrain advanced to the AFC playoffs. Fourth round Teams finishing 3rd in the third round groups played each other to determine a possible 5th qualifier from Asia. The first leg was originally played on 3 September 2005 but the match was ordered to be replayed by FIFA after a refereeing mistake. With Uzbekistan leading the tie 1–0, a penalty was awarded to them but the referee disallowed the resulting goal and offered an indirect freekick to Bahrain for encroachment. Uzbekistan had formally requested for the match to be recorded as an automatic 3–0 victory. Bahrain advanced to the AFC–CONCACAF play-off on the away goals rule. Inter-confederation play-offs The Fourth Round winner then played the fourth-placed team of the CONCACAF qualifying group, Trinidad and Tobago, in a home-and-away play-off. The winner of this play-off qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. Qualified teams The following four teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament. 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year. Goalscorers There were 401 goals scored in 136 matches (including 2 international play-offs), for an average of 2.95 goals per match. 9 goals Ali Daei 6 goals A'ala Hubail Lee Dong-gook Ali Ashfaq Begençmuhammet Kulyýew 5 goals Husain Ali Ilham Jaya Kesuma Bashar Abdullah Maksim Shatskikh 4 goals Vahid Hashemian Hong Yong-jo Bader Al-Mutawa Badar Al-Maimani Yasser Al-Qahtani Alexander Geynrikh 3 goals Talal Yousef Hao Haidong Li Jinyu Huang Wei-yi Javad Nekounam Razzaq Farhan Qusay Munir Takashi Fukunishi Mitsuo Ogasawara Takayuki Suzuki Badran Al Shagran Roda Antar Ali Nasseredine Sergey Chikishev Ibrahim Fazeel Ahmed Thoriq Roberto Kettlun Saad Al-Harthi Sami Al-Jaber Ibrahim Sowed Rejepmyrat Agabaýew Guwançmuhammet Öwekow Mohamed Omer Server Djeparov Mirjalol Qosimov Anvarjon Soliev Phan Văn Tài Em 2 goals Li Xiaopeng Shao Jiayi Chen Jui-te Chu Siu Kei P. Renedy Singh Arash Borhani Reza Enayati Mehdi Mahdavikia Alireza Vahedi Nikbakht Ebrahim Taghipour Salih Sadir Ahmad Mnajed Tatsuhiko Kubo Yuji Nakazawa Masashi Oguro An Yong-hak Kim