2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup

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International football competition

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The 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup was the 41st edition of the AFC U-20 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men’s under-20 national teams of Asia. This edition is the first to be played as an under-20 tournament, as the AFC proposed to switch the tournament from under-19 to under-20 starting from 2023.[1] Moreover, the tournament was also rebranded from the “AFC U-19 Championship” to the “AFC U-20 Asian Cup”.[2] On 25 January 2021, the AFC announced that Uzbekistan would retain hosting rights for the 2023 edition after the cancellation of the 2020 AFC U-19 Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

A total of 16 teams are playing in the tournament. The top four teams of the tournament, Japan, Iraq, South Korea and Uzbekistan, qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup as the AFC representatives besides Indonesia who automatically qualified as hosts. However, Indonesia were removed from hosting the tournament on 29 March 2023 and thus could not participate.[4]

Saudi Arabia were the title holders, having won the title in 2018, but were eliminated from the group stage and thus failed to defend the title. Uzbekistan won the first-ever title after a 1–0 win over Iraq in the final.

Qualification[edit]

Qualification matches were played between 10–18 September 2022.[5]

Qualified teams[edit]

A total of 16 teams including hosts Uzbekistan qualified for the final tournament.[6] Countries that initially qualified for the 2020 AFC U-19 Championship but missed out this edition included Bahrain, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Yemen. China and Jordan marked their return after initially failed to qualify in the previous edition. Kyrgyzstan qualified for the first time since 2006, Syria returned to the tournament since 2012 and Oman returned after the 2014 edition.

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Team Qualified as Appearance Previous best performance
 Uzbekistan Hosts 8th Runners-up (2008)
 Saudi Arabia Group A winners 15th Champions (1986, 1992, 2018)
 Qatar Group B winners 15th Champions (2014)
 Japan Group C winners 38th Champions (2016)
 Jordan Group D winners 8th Fourth place (2006)
 South Korea Group E winners 39th Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
 Indonesia Group F winners 18th Champions (1961)
 Oman Group G winners 3rd Group stage (2000, 2014)
 Australia Group H winners 8th Runners-up (2010)
 Tajikistan Group I winners 5th Quarter-finals (2016, 2018)
 Iran Group J winners 21st Champions (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
 Vietnam Best runners-up 20th[note 1] Semi-finals (2016)
 Kyrgyzstan 2nd best runners-up 2nd Group stage (2006)
 China 3rd best runners-up 19th Champions (1985)
 Iraq 4th best runners-up 18th Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
 Syria 5th best runners-up 11th Champions (1994)

The matches are being played on four venues at two cities across Uzbekistan.

AFC has uploaded pictures of the new AFC U20 Asian Cup 2023 on their social media pages on March 18, 2023.

Match officials[edit]

On February 2023, AFC announced a total of 13 referees (including one woman) and 15 assistant referees (including two women) appointed for the tournament.

Referees

Assistant referees

The draw of the final tournament was held on 26 October 2022, 12:00 UZT (UTC+5), in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.[8] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Uzbekistan automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.[9]

Players born on or after 1 January 2003 and on or before 31 December 2007 were 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.[10]

Group stage[edit]

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

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 tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[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 were 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 match times are in local time, UZT (UTC+5), as listed by AFC.[11]

Schedule
Matchday Dates Matches
Matchday 1 1–3 March 2023 1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2 4–6 March 2023 4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3 7–9 March 2023 1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A[edit]

Group B[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Head-to-head goal differences: Iran +1, Australia 0, Vietnam –1.

Group C[edit]

Group D[edit]

Knockout stage[edit]

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.[10]

Bracket[edit]

Quarter-finals[edit]

Winners qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Semi-finals[edit]

Final[edit]

Winners[edit]

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

Goalscorers[edit]

There were 69 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.23 goals per match.

5 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Discipline[edit]

A player or team official is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:[10]

  • Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offences)
  • Receiving two yellow cards in two matches; yellow cards expire after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions are not carried forward to any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup[edit]

The following four teams from AFC qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1
 Iraq 11 March 2023 4 (1977, 1989, 2001, 2013)
 Uzbekistan 11 March 2023 4 (2003, 2009, 2013, 2015)
 South Korea 12 March 2023 15 (1979, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019)
 Japan 12 March 2023 10 (1979, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2017, 2019)

1Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

See also[edit]

References[edit]


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