2016 AFC U-19 Championship

2016 AFC U-19 Championship

بطولة آسيا للشباب تحت 19 عاما 2016
Tournament details
Host country	Bahrain
Dates	13–30 October 2016
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (1st title)
Runners-up	Saudi Arabia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	84 (2.71 per match)
Attendance	39,304 (1,268 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sami Al-Najei Abdulrahman Al-Yami (4 goals each)
Best player(s)	Ritsu Doan
Fair play award	Japan
← 2014 2018 →

The 2016 AFC U-19 Championship was the 39th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. The tournament was hosted by Bahrain, as announced by the AFC on 3 June 2015,^[1] and was scheduled to be played between 13–30 October 2016.^[2] A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.

Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the AFC representatives, besides South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts. If South Korea were among the top four teams, three play-off matches would be played to decide the fifth-placed team which also qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup; however, this was not necessary as South Korea were eliminated in the group stage.^[3]

Japan conquered the title for the first time after beating Saudi Arabia in the final's penalty shootout, and also set a record in the competition for being the first team to win the tournament without conceding a single goal.

On 25 October 2016, the AFC President, Salman Al-Khalifa, congratulated Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Islamic Republic of Iran and Japan on qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup South Korea 2017. The four teams will join hosts South Korea to make up Asia's five representatives at the tournament.^[4]

Qualification[]

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015.^[5] A total of 43 teams were drawn into ten groups, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament, together with Bahrain who qualified automatically as hosts but also competed in the qualifying stage.

The qualifiers were played between 28 September – 6 October 2015.^[6]

Qualified teams[]

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[7]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Bahrain	Hosts	9th	Runners-up (1986)
Japan	Group J winners	36th	Runners-up (1973, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006)
Iraq	Group F winners	16th	Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
China PR	Group I winners	17th	Champions (1985)
Vietnam	Group G winners	18th	Quarter-finals (19671, 19691)
Uzbekistan	Group A winners	7th	Runners-up (2008)
South Korea	Group H winners	37th	Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
Tajikistan	Group F (1st best) runners-up	3rd	Group stage (2006, 2008)
United Arab Emirates	Group C winners	13th	Champions (2008)
Australia	Group J (2nd best) runners-up	6th	Runners-up (2010)
Qatar	Group D winners	13th	Champions (2014)
Thailand	Group H (3rd best) runners-up	32nd	Champions (1962, 1969)
Saudi Arabia	Group B winners	13th	Champions (1986, 1992)
North Korea	Group I (4th best) runners-up	12th	Champions (1976, 2006, 2010)
Iran	Group E winners	20th	Champions (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
Yemen	Group B (5th best) runners-up	6th	Group stage (1978, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014)

¹ As

Venues[]

The tournament is played in two venues:

Riffa	Riffa Isa Town 2016 AFC U-19 Championship (Bahrain)
Bahrain National Stadium
Capacity: 30,000
Isa Town
Khalifa Sports City Stadium
Capacity: 20,000

Draw[]

The draw for the final tournament was held on 30 April 2016, 19:00 AST (UTC+3), in Manama.^[8] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[3] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous edition in 2014.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Bahrain (hosts; position A1)  Qatar  North Korea  Uzbekistan	Japan  Thailand  United Arab Emirates  China PR	Australia  Iraq  South Korea  Yemen	Iran  Vietnam  Saudi Arabia  Tajikistan

Squads[]

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can register a maximum of 23 players (minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers).^[9]

Group stage[]

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[9]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. If, after applying criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
5. Goal difference in all the group matches;
6. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
8. Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
9. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, AST (UTC+3).^[10]

Group A[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bahrain (H)	3	2	0	1	7	6	+1	6	Knockout stage
2	Saudi Arabia	3	2	0	1	8	4	+4	6
3	South Korea	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6
4	Thailand	3	0	0	3	3	10	−7	0

---

---

• Note

 Bahrain is ahead of  Saudi Arabia on head-to-head records : Bahrain 3-2 Saudi Arabia. While  Saudi Arabia is ahead of  South Korea on numbers of goals which scored (excluding results against  Thailand) : Saudi Arabia 4 goals, South Korea 3 goals

Group B[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	3	2	1	0	5	0	+5	7	Knockout stage
2	Vietnam	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
3	United Arab Emirates	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
4	North Korea	3	0	0	3	2	9	−7	0

---

---

Group C[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	1	0	6	0	+6	7	Knockout stage
2	Iran	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Qatar	3	1	1	1	2	4	−2	4
4	Yemen	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

---

---

Group D[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7	Knockout stage
2	Tajikistan	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
3	Australia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	China PR	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1

---

---

Knockout stage[]

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.^[9]

Bracket[]

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	23 October – Riffa
	Bahrain	0
					27 October – Riffa
	Vietnam	1
					Vietnam	0
	24 October – Riffa
					Japan	3
	Japan	4
									30 October – Riffa
	Tajikistan	0
									Japan (p)	0 (5)
	23 October – Isa Town
									Saudi Arabia	0 (3)
	Iraq	2 (5)
					27 October – Isa Town
	Saudi Arabia (p)	2 (6)
					Saudi Arabia	6
	24 October – Isa Town
					Iran	5
	Uzbekistan	0
	Iran	2

Quarter-finals[]

Winners qualified for 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

---

---

---

Semi-finals[]

---

Final[]

Winners[]

AFC U-19 Championship 2016 Winners
Japan First title

Awards[]

Most Valuable Player

• Ritsu Doan^[11]

Top Scorer

• Sami Al-Najei^[12]

Fair Play

•  Japan

Goalscorers[]

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: the-afc.com

Tournament team rankings[]

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1	Japan	6	4	2	0	13	0	+13	14	Champions
2	Saudi Arabia	6	3	2	1	16	11	+5	11	Runners-up
3	Iran	5	2	2	1	9	7	+2	8	Semi-finalists
4	Vietnam	5	2	2	1	4	5	−1	8
5	Iraq	4	2	2	0	7	2	+5	8	Eliminated in quarter-finals
6	Uzbekistan	4	2	1	1	5	5	0	7
7	Bahrain (H)	4	2	0	2	7	7	0	6
8	Tajikistan	4	1	1	2	3	6	−3	4
9	South Korea	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6	Eliminated in group stage
10	United Arab Emirates	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
11	Australia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
12	Qatar	3	1	1	1	2	4	−2	4
13	China PR	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1
14	Yemen	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0
15	Thailand	3	0	0	3	3	10	−7	0
16	North Korea	3	0	0	3	2	9	−7	0

Qualified teams for U-20 World Cup[]

The following five teams from AFC qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, including South Korea which qualified as hosts.^[13]

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
South Korea	5 December 2013[14]	13 (1979, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
Japan	24 October 2016	8 (1979, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007)
Saudi Arabia	23 October 2016	7 (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2011)
Iran	24 October 2016	2 (1977, 2001)
Vietnam	23 October 2016	0 (debut)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

References[]

External links[]

• AFC U-19 Championship, the-AFC.com