2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup

2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Uzbekistan
Dates	1–18 March
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Uzbekistan (1st title)
Runners-up	Iraq
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	69 (2.23 per match)
Attendance	203,176 (6,554 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Naoki Kumata; (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Abbosbek Fayzullaev
Best goalkeeper	Otabek Boymurodov

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 was removed from hosting the tournament on 29 March 2023 and thus could not participate.^[4] Subsequently, FIFA awarded Argentina the rights to organize the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in place of the original hosts Indonesia.^[5]^[6]

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

Qualification matches were played between 10 and 18 September 2022.^[7]

Qualified teams

A total of 16 teams including hosts Uzbekistan qualified for the final tournament.^[8] 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.

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)

Venues

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

Tashkent			Fergana
Milliy Stadium	JAR Stadium	Lokomotiv Stadium	Istiqlol Stadium
Capacity: 34,000	Capacity: 8,500	Capacity: 8,000	Capacity: 20,200

Host cities in Uzbekistan Tashkent Fergana		Stadiums in Tashkent Milliy JAR Lokomotiv

Trophy

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

Match officials

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

Referees

Casey Reibelt
Ammar Mahfoodh
Chen Hsin-chuan
Tam Ping Wun
Zaid Thamer
Abdullah Jamali
Nazmi Nasaruddin
Qasim Al-Hatmi
Majed Al-Shamrani
Kim Woo-sung
Sadullo Gulmurodi
Yahya Al-Mulla
Akhrol Risqullaev

Assistant referees

Faisal Al-Awi
Chen Hsiao-en
So Kai Man
Farhad Moravveji
Yosuke Takebe
Ramina Tsoi
Mohammad Bin Tan
Nasser Al-Busaidi
Ali Muhammad
Heba Saadieh
Faisal Al-Shammari
Jang Jong-pil
Vafo Karaev
Ahmed Al-Rashdi
Sanjar Shayusupov

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 26 October 2022, 12:00 UZT (UTC+5), in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.^[10] 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.^[11]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Uzbekistan (hosts) Saudi Arabia South Korea Qatar	Japan Tajikistan Australia Indonesia	Jordan China Iraq Vietnam	Iran Oman Syria Kyrgyzstan

Squads

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.^[12]

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:^[12]

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 match times are in local time, UZT (UTC+5), as listed by AFC.^[13]

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan (H)	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4	Knockout stage
3	Indonesia	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4
4	Syria	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1

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

1 March 2023

17:00

Indonesia	0–2	Iraq
	Report	Abdulkareem 28' Jameel 90+6'

Lokomotiv Stadium, Tashkent

Attendance: 120

Referee: Sadullo Gulmurodi (Tajikistan)

1 March 2023