2018 AFC U-23 Championship

2018 AFC U-23 Championship

2018年亚足联U-23锦标赛
Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	9–27 January 2018
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Uzbekistan (1st title)
Runners-up	Vietnam
Third place	Qatar
Fourth place	South Korea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	82 (2.56 per match)
Attendance	65,850 (2,058 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Almoez Ali (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Odiljon Hamrobekov
Fair play award	Vietnam
← 2016 2020 →

The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2018 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the third edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament. It took place between 9–27 January 2018,^[1] and was hosted by China.^[2]

Uzbekistan defeated Vietnam in the final to win their first title. Japan were the defending champions, but failed to defend the title after losing to Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals.

Hosts selection[]

•  China^[3]

Qualification[]

The qualifiers were held from 15 to 23 July 2017.^[4] China also participated in the qualifiers, even though they had already qualified automatically as hosts.^[2]

Qualified teams[]

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[5]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
China PR	Hosts	3rd	Group stage (2013, 2016)
Oman	Group A winners	2nd	Group stage (2013)
Iraq	Group B winners	3rd	Champions (2013)
Qatar	Group C winners	2nd	Fourth place (2016)
Uzbekistan	Group D winners	3rd	Group stage (2013, 2016)
Palestine	Group E winners	1st	Debut
Australia	Group F winners	3rd	Quarter-finals (2013)
North Korea	Group G winners	3rd	Quarter-finals (2016)
Malaysia	Group H winners	1st	Debut
South Korea	Group I winners	3rd	Runners-up (2016)
Thailand	Group H runners-up[note 1]	2nd	Group stage (2016)
Syria	Group C runners-up[note 1]	3rd	Quarter-finals (2013)
Vietnam	Group I runners-up[note 1]	2nd	Group stage (2016)
Jordan	Group E runners-up[note 1]	3rd	Third place (2013)
Japan	Group J runners-up[note 1]	3rd	Champions (2016)
Saudi Arabia	Group B runners-up[note 1]	3rd	Runners-up (2013)

Notes:

Venues[]

The competition was played in four venues in four cities, all in the province of Jiangsu.^[6]

Changzhou	Kunshan
Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre	Kunshan Stadium
Capacity: 38,000	Capacity: 25,000
Changzhou Kunshan Jiangyin Changshu
Jiangyin	Changshu
Jiangyin Stadium	Changshu Stadium
Capacity: 32,000	Capacity: 35,000

Draw[]

The draw of the final tournament was held on 24 October 2017, 16:00 CST (UTC+8), at the Traders Fudu Hotel in Changzhou.^[7] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[6] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts China automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[8]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
China PR (hosts)  Japan  South Korea  Iraq	Qatar  North Korea  Jordan  Australia	Uzbekistan  Syria  Saudi Arabia  Thailand	Vietnam  Oman  Malaysia  Palestine

Match officials[]

The following referees were chosen for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship. Additional assistant referees were used in this tournament.^[9]

Referees

Assistant referees

Support referees

• Minoru Tōjō
• Ilgiz Tantashev

Support assistant referees

• Ahmad Ali
• Nguyễn Trung Hậu

Squads[]

Players born on or after 1 January 1995 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 24.1 and 24.2).^[10]

Group stage[]

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

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):^[10]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
8. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
9. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CST (UTC+8).

Schedule

Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	9–11 January 2018	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	12–14 January 2018	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	15–17 January 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar	3	3	0	0	4	1	+3	9	Knockout stage
2	Uzbekistan	3	2	0	1	2	1	+1	6
3	China PR (H)	3	1	0	2	4	3	+1	3
4	Oman	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

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Group B[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4	9	Knockout stage
2	Palestine	3	1	1	1	6	3	+3	4
3	North Korea	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
4	Thailand	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

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Group C[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7	Knockout stage
2	Malaysia	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4
3	Jordan	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
4	Saudi Arabia	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2

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Group D[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7	Knockout stage
2	Vietnam	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Australia	3	1	0	2	5	5	0	3
4	Syria	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2

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Knockout stage[]

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Articles 12.1 and 12.2).^[10]

Bracket[]

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	19 January – Changzhou
	Qatar	3
					23 January – Changzhou
	Palestine	2
					Qatar	2 (3)
	20 January – Changshu
					Vietnam (p)	2 (4)
	Iraq	3 (3)
									27 January – Changzhou
	Vietnam (p)	3 (5)
									Vietnam	1
	19 January – Jiangyin
									Uzbekistan (a.e.t.)	2
	Japan	0
					23 January – Kunshan
	Uzbekistan	4
					Uzbekistan (a.e.t.)	4
	20 January – Kunshan
					South Korea	1			Third place match
	South Korea	2
									26 January – Kunshan
	Malaysia	1
									Qatar	1
									South Korea	0

Quarter-finals[]

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Semi-finals[]

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Third place match[]

Final[]

This was the first time ever that Vietnam and Uzbekistan met together in final. For Vietnam, this was their first appearance in an AFC final at any level.

Winners[]

2018 AFC U-23 Championship
Uzbekistan First title

Awards[]

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Top Goalscorer[11]	Most Valuable Player[12]	Fair Play award[13]
Almoez Ali	Odiljon Hamrobekov	Vietnam

Statistics[]

Goalscorers[]

There were 82 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 2.56 goals per match.

6 goals

5 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

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
	Uzbekistan	6	5	0	1	12	3	+9	15	Champions
	Vietnam	6	1	3	2	8	9	−1	6	Runners-up
	Qatar	6	5	1	0	10	5	+5	16	Third place
4	South Korea	6	3	1	2	8	9	−1	10	Fourth place
5	Japan	4	3	0	1	5	5	0	9	Eliminated in quarter-finals
6	Iraq	4	2	2	0	8	4	+4	8
7	Palestine	4	1	1	2	8	6	+2	4
8	Malaysia	4	1	1	2	4	7	−3	4
9	North Korea	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4	Eliminated in group stage
10	China PR (H)	3	1	0	2	4	3	+1	3
11	Australia	3	1	0	2	5	5	0	3
12	Jordan	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
13	Saudi Arabia	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
14	Syria	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
15	Oman	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0
16	Thailand	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

Broadcasting rights[]

•  Arab League: beIN Sports (MENA),
•  Australia: Fox Sports Australia^[14]
•  China: CCTV,^[15][16] PPTV,^[17] Guangdong Sports^[18]
•  ASEAN: Fox Sports Asia^[19]
•  South Korea: JTBC3 Fox Sports^[20]
•  Vietnam: VTV^[21]

References[]

External links[]

• AFC U-23 Championship, the-AFC.com
• AFC U-23 Championship 2018, stats.the-AFC.com