South Korea has been grouped with Iran in the final Asian qualifying round for the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

In a draw held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, Korea was picked to face the side in Group A along with Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Qatar.

Ten teams were divided into two groups of five in the draw. In Group B, Australia is pitted against Japan, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

Asia has 4.5 tickets for the FIFA World Cup. The top-two teams of the two groups will automatically qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals, while the two third-place teams are to take part in a play-off with the winner taking on a team from South America for a final ticket to Brazil.

Korea secured the top-seed in Group A thanks to its 2-0 victory over Kuwait combined with Japan’s 1-0 loss to Uzbekistan last week.

Korea moved up in the latest FIFA rankings from 34th in February to 30th this month.

Korea is now the second-highest ranked member of the Asian Football Confederation, behind Australia which ranks 20th. Japan is ranked 33rd.

Manager Choi Kwang-hee’s Korean national team is aiming to reach its eighth straight World Cup finals. In the final qualifying round, the 10 teams will play each other in home-and-away matches beginning June 3. 

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)