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2018 AFC U-23 Championship
2018年亚足联U-23锦标赛
Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	9–27 January
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

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	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:

^ ^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]

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 (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

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).

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

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

9 January 2018

16:00

China	3–0	Oman
Yang Liyu 30' Li Xiaoming 34' Wei Shihao 53'	Live Report Stats Report

Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre, Changzhou

Attendance: 11,800

Referee: Chris Beath (Australia)

9 January 2018