2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification

2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Kyrgyzstan (Group A); Saudi Arabia (Group B); Qatar (Group C); United Arab Emirates (Group D); Palestine (Group E); Myanmar (Group F); North Korea (Group G); Thailand (Group H); Vietnam (Group I); Cambodia (Group J)
Dates	15–23 July 2017
Teams	40 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	57
Goals scored	205 (3.6 per match)
Attendance	277,285 (4,865 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ayman Hussein (6 goals)

The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including China PR who qualified automatically as hosts.^[2]

Draw

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 40 teams entered the competition. The final tournament hosts China PR decided to participate in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament.^[3]

The draw was held on 17 March 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[4] The 40 teams were drawn into ten groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:

West Zone: 20 teams from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, to be drawn into five groups of four teams (Groups A–E).
East Zone: 20 teams from ASEAN and East Asia, to be drawn into five groups of four teams (Groups F–J).

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification. The following restrictions were also applied:^[5]

The nine teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
As Iran and Saudi Arabia refused to travel to each other's country, they would not be drawn into the same group.
As Iran, Syria and Lebanon had indicated they would not travel to Palestine, they would not be drawn into the group hosted by Palestine.

	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
West Zone	Iraq Qatar (H) United Arab Emirates (H) Iran Jordan	Uzbekistan Syria Saudi Arabia (H) Oman Tajikistan	Palestine (H) Bahrain India Kyrgyzstan (H) Lebanon	Afghanistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka (W) Nepal Turkmenistan (unranked)
East Zone	Japan South Korea North Korea (H) Australia Thailand (H)	China (Q) Vietnam (H) Indonesia Myanmar (H) Laos	Malaysia Timor-Leste Chinese Taipei Cambodia (H)* Singapore	Mongolia Hong Kong Philippines Brunei Macau

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualification group hosts (* Cambodia chosen as qualification group hosts after the draw)
(Q): Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results
(W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter
West Zone	Bhutan Kuwait (suspended)^[6] Maldives Pakistan Yemen
East Zone	Guam Northern Mariana Islands

Player eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 1995 were eligible to compete in the tournament.^[7]

Format

In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualified for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts China PR won their group or were among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualified for the final tournament.^[4]

Tiebreakers

Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):^[7]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
Drawing of lots.

Groups

The matches were played between 15 and 23 July 2017.

Schedule
Matchday	Dates		Matches
Matchday	Group D	Groups A–C, E–J	Groups B–J	Group A
Matchday 1	15 July 2017	19 July 2017	1 v 4, 2 v 3	3 v 1
Matchday 2	17 July 2017	21 July 2017	4 v 2, 3 v 1	2 v 3
Matchday 3	19 July 2017	23 July 2017	1 v 2, 3 v 4	1 v 2

Group A

All matches were held in Kyrgyzstan.
Times listed were UTC+6.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Oman	2	2	0	7	1	+6	6	Final tournament
2	Iran	2	1	1	2	3	−1	3
3	Kyrgyzstan (H)	2	0	2	2	7	−5	0
4	Sri Lanka	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

19 July 2017

19:00

Kyrgyzstan	1–2	Iran
Levchenko 11'	Report	Shekari 14' Gholizadeh 42'

Dolen Omurzakov Stadium, Bishkek

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Ahmad Yacoub Ibrahim (Jordan)

21 July 2017

19:00

Oman	5–1	Kyrgyzstan
Al-Ghassani 61', 83', 90+1' Al-Aghbari 81' (pen.) Al-Yahmadi 84'	Report	Abdurakhmanov 45+2'

Dolen Omurzakov Stadium, Bishkek

Attendance: 2,500

Referee: Saoud Al-Athbah (Qatar)

23 July 2017

19:00

Iran	0–2	Oman
	Report	Al-Yahmadi 48' Al-Ghassani 71'

Dolen Omurzakov Stadium, Bishkek

Attendance: 1,000

Referee: Muhammad Nazmi Nasaruddin (Malaysia)

Group B

All matches were held in Saudi Arabia.
Times listed were UTC+3.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	3	3	0	12	1	+11	9	Final tournament
2	Saudi Arabia (H)	3	2	1	11	3	+8	6	Final tournament
3	Bahrain	3	1	2	4	5	−1	3
4	Afghanistan	3	0	3	0	18	−18	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

19 July 2017