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2018 AFC U-16 Championship
Kejohanan Remaja B-16 AFC 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Malaysia
Dates	20 September – 7 October
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (3rd title)
Runners-up	Tajikistan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	97 (3.13 per match)
Attendance	62,582 (2,019 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Noah Botic; Shoji Toyama; Luqman Hakim; (5 goals each)
Best player(s)	Jun Nishikawa
Fair play award	Japan
	← 2016 2020; 2023 →

The 2018 AFC U-16 Championship was the 18th edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-16 national teams of Asia. It took place in Malaysia, which was appointed as hosts by the AFC on 25 July 2017,^[1] between 20 September and 7 October 2018.^[2] A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.

The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil as the AFC representatives. Japan won their third title, and qualified together with runners-up Tajikistan and semi-finalists Australia and South Korea. Iraq were the defending champions but were eliminated in the group stage.

Qualification

Qualifying was played on 16–29 September 2017.^[3] Malaysia 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.^[4]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Malaysia	Hosts	5th	Quarter-finals (2014)
Jordan	Group A winners	3rd	Quarter-finals (2010)
Tajikistan	Group B winners	3rd	Third place (2006)
Iran	Group C winners	11th	Champions (2008)
Iraq	Group D winners	10th	Champions (2016)
Yemen	Group E winners	6th	Runners-up (2002)
North Korea	Group F winners	11th	Champions (2010, 2014)
Indonesia	Group G winners	6th	Fourth place (1990)
South Korea	Group H winners	14th	Champions (1986, 2002)
Australia	Group I winners	6th	Semi-finals (2010, 2014)
Japan	Group J winners	15th	Champions (1994, 2006)
India	Group D runners-up^{[note 1]}	8th	Quarter-finals (2002)
Oman	Group B runners-up^{[note 1]}	10th	Champions (1996, 2000)
Thailand	Group G runners-up^{[note 1]}	11th	Champions (1998)
Vietnam	Group I runners-up^{[note 1]}	7th	Fourth place (2000)
Afghanistan	Group C runners-up^{[note 1]}	1st	Debut

Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e As Malaysia (Group J runners-up) had already automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, the five best runners-up (excluding Malaysia) qualified for the final tournament.

Venues

The matches were played in three venues around Klang Valley. The venues were Bukit Jalil National Stadium, UM Arena Stadium and Petaling Jaya Stadium. The final match was held at Bukit Jalil National Stadium.

Kuala Lumpur		Petaling Jaya
Bukit Jalil National Stadium	UM Arena Stadium	Petaling Jaya Stadium
Capacity: 87,411	Capacity: 1,000	Capacity: 25,000

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 26 April 2018, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.^[5] 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-16 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Malaysia automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[7]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Malaysia (hosts) Iraq Iran North Korea	Japan Oman Vietnam South Korea	Yemen India Thailand Australia	Tajikistan Jordan Afghanistan Indonesia

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2002 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team should register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.^[8]

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 tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[8]

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, MYT (UTC+8).

Schedule
Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	20–22 September 2018	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	23–25 September 2018	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	27–28 September 2018^{[note 1]}	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7	Knockout stage
2	Tajikistan	3	1	1	1	4	7	−3	4	Knockout stage
3	Thailand	3	1	0	2	7	9	−2	3^[a]
4	Malaysia (H)	3	1	0	2	8	8	0	3^[a]

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

^ ^a ^b Head-to-head result: Thailand 4–2 Malaysia.

20 September 2018

16:30

Malaysia	6–2	Tajikistan
Luqman 30', 42', 46', 66' Najmudin 33' (pen.) Mutalib 76' (pen.)	Report	Rahmatov 72' (pen.) Zairov 90+1'

Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 723

Referee: Ahmad Yacoub Ibrahim (Jordan)

20 September 2018

20:45

Japan	5–2	Thailand
Araki 6', 34' Kondo 8' Handa 42' Toyama 90+1'	Report	Warakorn 1' Suphanat 15'

UM Arena Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 86

Referee: Payam Heidari (Iran)

23 September 2018

16:30

Thailand	4–2	Malaysia
Suphanat 3', 21' Warakorn 57' Apidet 85'	Report	Luqman 12' Firdaus 48'

Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 8,596

Referee: Omar Mohamed Al-Ali (United Arab Emirates)

23 September 2018

20:45

Tajikistan	0–0	Japan
	Report

UM Arena Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 115

Referee: Saoud Al-Athbah (Qatar)

27 September 2018

11:00^{[note 1]}

Malaysia	0–2	Japan
	Report	Toyama 37' Naruoka 90+3'

Bukit Jalil National Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 8,378

Referee: Kim Woo-sung (South Korea)

27 September 2018

11:00^{[note 1]}

Thailand	1–2	Tajikistan
Suphanat 80'	Report	Panzhiev 38' Zairov 84'

UM Arena Stadium, Kuala Lumpur

Attendance: 75

Referee: Shukri Al-Hunfush (Saudi Arabia)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	North Korea	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Oman	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4	Knockout stage
3	Yemen	3	1	0	2	5	4	+1	3
4	Jordan	3	0	2	1	5	9	−4	2

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

21 September 2018