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 AFC U-23 Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-22 Championship (in 2013) and AFC U-23 Championship (between 2016 and 2020), is a biennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 ...
, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the
Asian Football Confederation
The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...
(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, and was hosted by China.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
defeated
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
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. 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.
Venues
The competition was played in four venues in four cities, all in the province of
Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its c ...
.
Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 24 October 2017, 16:00 CST (
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...
), at the Traders Fudu Hotel in
Changzhou
Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...
. 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
The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2016 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the second edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted association football, football championship organised by the Asian Football ...
final tournament and
qualification
Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to:
* Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...
, with the hosts China automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
Match officials
The following referees were chosen for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship. Additional assistant referees were used in this tournament.
;Referees
* Chris Beath
* Peter Green
*
Nawaf Shukralla
Nawaf Abdullah Ghayyath Shukrallah ( ar, نواف شكر الله) (born 13 October 1976) is a Bahraini football referee who has been a full international referee for FIFA.
In 2011, FIFA called him on duty at the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
He h ...
*
Fu Ming
Fu Ming (born 5 January 1983) is a Chinese football referee. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2014. He is a teacher of Jincheng College of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The Nanjing University of ...
Alireza Faghani
Alireza Faghani ( fa, عليرضا فغانى; born 21 March 1978) is an Iranian international football referee who has been officiating in the Persian Gulf Pro League for several seasons and has been on the FIFA list since 2008. Faghani has ref ...
Ryuji Sato
is an international football referee from Japan. He has refereed many matches in the AFC Champions League and FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition ...
*
Jumpei Iida
is a Japanese football referee. He has officiated matches in numerous international tournaments including EAFF Championship and AFC Cup. Locally he has officiated regularly in the J. League. In 2012, he officiated in the English FA Cup and Pro ...
*
Adham Makhadmeh
Adham Mohammad Tumah Makhadmeh ( ar, ادهم المخادمة; born 1986) is a Jordanian football referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sport ...
*
Kim Dong-jin
Kim Dong-jin (born 29 January 1982) is a former South Korean footballer who played as a full-back or a wing-back. He is currently the assistant coach of Hong Kong Premier League club Kitchee.
Club career
Kim started his professional care ...
Fahad Al-Mirdasi
Fahad Al-Mirdasi (born 16 August 1985) is a Saudi Arabian football referee who served as a full international for FIFA from 2011 to 2018, when he was banned for life for match fixing.
Refereeing career
Al-Mirdasi was one of the referees for th ...
Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed
Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed ( ar, محمد عبد الله حسن محمد; born 2 December 1978) is an Emirati football referee who has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2010.
He was one of the referees of the 2015 AFC Asi ...
*
Ravshan Irmatov
Ravshan Sayfiddinovich Irmatov ( uz, Ravshan Sayfiddinovich Ermatov, Равшан Сайфиддинович Эрматов; born August 9, 1977) is an Uzbek professional football referee.
He officiated in the Uzbek League from 2000-2019 and ...
Matthew Cream
Matthew James Cream (born 19 June 1975) is an Australian football referee. He is the Referee Development Officer in South Australia.
Cream was a FIFA international assistant referee between 2000–2021.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).
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):
#Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
#
Goal difference
Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches a ...
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
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
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
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...
).
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Knockout stage
In the knockout stage,
extra time
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...
and
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Articles 12.1 and 12.2).
Bracket
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
----
Third place match
Final
This was the first time ever that Vietnam and Uzbekistan met together in final. For Vietnam, this was their first appearance in an AFC final at any level.
Winners
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Fox Sports Australia
Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as ...
*:
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...
Fox Sports Asia
Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of St ...
Fox Sports Asia
Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of St ...
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...