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2018 AFC U-19 Championship
Piala Asia U-19 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Indonesia
Dates	18 October – 4 November
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Saudi Arabia (3rd title)
Runners-up	South Korea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	117 (3.77 per match)
Attendance	175,034 (5,646 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Abdulrasheed Umaru (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Turki Al-Ammar
Fair play award	Saudi Arabia
	← 2016 2020 →

The 2018 AFC U-19 Championship was the 40th edition of the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. It took place in Indonesia, which was appointed as the host by the AFC on 25 July 2017,^[1] between 18 October and 4 November 2018.^[2] A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.

The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the AFC representatives. Saudi Arabia won their third title, and qualified together with runners-up South Korea and semi-finalists Qatar and Japan, which were the defending champions but eliminated by Saudi Arabia.

Qualification

Qualification process

Qualification matches were played between 24 October and 8 November 2017.^[3]

Although Indonesia had already qualified automatically as hosts, they also participated in the qualifiers and finished third place after going down 0–3 and 1–4 loss to South Korea and Malaysia sides respectively.^[4]

Chinese Taipei returned to the tournament finals for the first time since 1974 as one of the best group runners-up.^[5]^[6]^[7]

The 2018 qualifiers also witnessed a unique situation where two teams had to go to penalties to determine the higher-position team. It happened in Group C after Qatar and Iraq were tied in all tie-breaking criteria and both of them played among each other in the last match.^[8] Qatar won the penalties and finished top of the group while Iraq finished second.^[9]

Twelve out of 2018 qualified sixteen teams played in the 2016 finals.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[10]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Indonesia	Hosts	17th	Champions (1961)
United Arab Emirates	Group A winners	14th	Champions (2008)
Tajikistan	Group B winners	4th	Quarter-finals (2016)
Qatar	Group C winners	14th	Champions (2014)
Saudi Arabia	Group D winners	14th	Champions (1986, 1992)
Jordan	Group E winners	7th	Fourth place (2006)
South Korea	Group F winners	38th	Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
China	Group G winners	18th	Champions (1985)
Vietnam	Group H winners	19th^{[note 1]}	Semi-finals (2016)
Japan	Group I winners	37th	Champions (2016)
Australia	Group J winners	7th	Runners-up (2010)
Iraq	Group C runners-up^{[note 2]}	17th	Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
Thailand	Group I runners-up^{[note 2]}	33rd	Champions (1962, 1969)
North Korea	Group J runners-up^{[note 2]}	13th	Champions (1976, 2006, 2010)
Chinese Taipei	Group H runners-up^{[note 2]}	10th	Third place (1966)
Malaysia	Group F runners-up^{[note 2]}	23rd	Runners-up (1959, 1960, 1968)

Notes:

^ Vietnam between 1959 and 1974 were to play at AFC tournaments as South Vietnam. A separate North Vietnam state did not join FIFA and they mostly played against other communist and communist-sympathising countries.^[11] The Vietnam's 19 appearances included 11 appearances as South Vietnam.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e The five best runners-up qualified for the final tournament.

Venues

The matches were played in three venues around Greater Jakarta.

Jakarta	Cibinong	Bekasi
Gelora Bung Karno	Pakansari	Patriot Candrabhaga
Capacity: 77,200	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 30,000

Jakarta Bekasi Cibinong

Draw

The draw was held on 18 May 2018, 15:00 WIB (UTC+7), at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta.^[12] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[13] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Indonesia automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[14]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Indonesia (hosts) Japan Saudi Arabia Vietnam	Iraq Tajikistan South Korea United Arab Emirates	Australia Qatar China Thailand	North Korea Jordan Malaysia Chinese Taipei

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 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.^[15]

Group stage

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:^[15]

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 were 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, WIB (UTC+7).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar	3	2	1	11	7	+4	6^[a]	Knockout stage
2	Indonesia (H)	3	2	1	9	7	+2	6^[a]	Knockout stage
3	United Arab Emirates	3	2	1	10	3	+7	6^[a]
4	Chinese Taipei	3	0	3	2	15	−13	0

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

^ ^a ^b ^c
Head-to-head results: United Arab Emirates 2–1 Qatar, Qatar 6–5 Indonesia, Indonesia 1–0 United Arab Emirates. Head-to-head standings:
- Qatar: 3 pts, 0 GD, 7 GF
- Indonesia: 3 pts, 0 GD, 6 GF
- United Arab Emirates: 3 pts, 0 GD, 2 GF

18 October 2018

16:00

United Arab Emirates	2–1	Qatar
Fawzi 16' Al. Saleh 41'	Report	Umaru 36'

Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta

Attendance: 2,124

Referee: Ahmed Al-Ali (Jordan)

18 October 2018