2018 AFC U-23 Championship


The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship was the third edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation 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, and was hosted by China.
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.
WWW the-afc.com/competitions/...

Hosts selection

*

Qualification

The qualifiers were held from 15 to 23 July 2017. China also participated in the qualifiers, even though they had already qualified automatically as hosts.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
TeamQualified asAppearancePrevious best performance
3rd
2nd
3rd
2nd
3rd
1st
3rd
3rd
1st
3rd
2nd
3rd
2nd
3rd
3rd
3rd

Venues

The competition was played in four venues in four cities, all in the province of Jiangsu.

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 24 October 2017, 16:00 CST, at the Traders Fudu Hotel in Changzhou. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. 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.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship. Additional assistant referees were used in this tournament.
;Referees
;Assistant referees
;Support referees
;Support assistant referees

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.

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.
;Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  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 are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
  8. Disciplinary points ;
  9. Drawing of lots.
All times are local, CST.
MatchdayDatesMatches
Matchday 19–11 January 20181 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 212–14 January 20184 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 315–17 January 20181 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

----
----

Group B

----
----

Group C

----
----

Group D

----
----

Knockout stage

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

Quarter-finals

----
----
----

Semi-finals

----

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Top GoalscorerMost Valuable PlayerFair Play award

Broadcasting rights