2018 AFC U-23 Championship

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

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]

Notes:

^ a b c d e f As China (Group J winners) had already automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, the six best runners-up qualified for the final tournament.

Venues

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

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]

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

Matthew Cream
Ebrahim Saleh
Yaser Tulefat
Cao Yi
Huo Weiming
Mohammadreza Mansouri
Reza Sokhandan
Yagi Akane
Toru Sagara
Ahmad Al-Roalle
Yoon Kwang-yeol
Sergei Grishchenko
Mohd Yusri Mohamad
Abu Bakar Al-Amri
Saud Al-Maqaleh
Taleb Al-Marri
Mohammed Al-Abakry
Abdullah Al-Shalawi
Ronnie Koh Min Kiat
Palitha Hemathunga
Mohamed Al-Hammadi
Hasan Al-Mahri
Abdukhamidullo Rasulov
Jakhongir Saidov

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]

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.

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

Group A

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

9 January 2018