# 2015 AFC U-19 Women's Championship

The 2015 AFC U-19 Women's Championship was the 8th edition of the AFC U-19 Women's Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the women's under-19 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in China between 18–29 August 2015. A total of eight teams played in the tournament.
Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea as the AFC representatives.
Japan won their fourth title with a final victory over North Korea on penalties. Both finalists and third-placed South Korea qualified for the World Cup.

## Qualification

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 17 June 2014. Four teams qualified directly for the final tournament by their 2013 performance, while the other entrants competed in the qualifying stage for the remaining four spots.

### Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| South Korea | 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship champions | 8th | Champions (2004, 2013) |
| North Korea | 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship runners-up | 8th | Champions (2007) |
| China | 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship third place / Hosts | 8th | Champions (2006) |
| Japan | 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship fourth place | 8th | Champions (2002, 2009, 2011) |
| Uzbekistan | Qualifying Group A winners | 3rd | Group stage (2002, 2004) |
| Iran | Qualifying Group B winners | 1st | Debut |
| Australia | Qualifying Group C winners | 6th | Third place (2006) |
| Thailand | Qualifying Group D winners | 5th | Fourth place (2004) |

## Venues

Nanjing hosted the tournament, with two venues: Jiangning Sports Center and Jiangsu Training Base Stadium.
Nanjing :
| Jiangning Sports Center | Jiangsu Training Base Stadium |
| Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 3,000 |
| Nanjing ||

## Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 13 May 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous edition in 2013.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| China (hosts)  South Korea | Japan  North Korea | Australia  Thailand | Iran  Uzbekistan |

## Squads

Players born between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2000 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can register a maximum of 23 players (minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers).

## Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

### Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order:
* Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
* Goal difference in all the group matches;
* Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
* Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
* Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
* Drawing of lots.
All times were local, CST (UTC+8).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 | +9 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | China (H) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 4 | +9 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Australia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 | Uzbekistan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 17 | −17 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | North Korea | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 | +15 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | South Korea | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 1 | +15 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Thailand | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | Iran | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 29 | −28 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

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

### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 26 August – Nanjing | 26 August – Nanjing |
| Japan | 1 |
| Japan | 1 | 29 August – Nanjing | 29 August – Nanjing |
| South Korea | 0 | 29 August – Nanjing | 29 August – Nanjing |
| South Korea | 0 | Japan (p) | 0 (4) |
| 26 August – Nanjing | 26 August – Nanjing | | Japan (p) | 0 (4) |
| 26 August – Nanjing | 26 August – Nanjing | North Korea | 0 (2) |
| North Korea | 2 | North Korea | 0 (2) |
| China | 0 | | |
| China | 0 | Third place | Third place |
| | | 29 August – Nanjing | 29 August – Nanjing |
| | | South Korea | 4 |
| | | China | 0 |

### Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

### Third place match

Winner qualified for 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

### Final
## Winners

* 2015 AFC U-19 Women's Championship winners
* Japan Fourth title

## Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

The following three teams from AFC qualified for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament |
| Japan | 26 August 2015 | 4 (2002, 2008, 2010, 2012) |
| North Korea | 26 August 2015 | 5 (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) |
| South Korea | 29 August 2015 | 4 (2004, 2010, 2012, 2014) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.
| Most Valuable Player | Top Scorer | Fair Play Award |
| Rikako Kobayashi | Ri Un-sim | Japan |

## Goalscorers
### 6 goals

* Ri Un-sim

### 4 goals

* Rikako Kobayashi
* Son Hwa-yeon
* Saowalak Pengngam

### 3 goals

* Xiao Yuyi
* Yan Jinjin
* Kiko Seike
* Ri Kyong-hyang
* Namgung Ye-ji
* Jang Chang
* Wie Jae-eun
* Jenjira Bubpha

### 2 goals

* Shi Tianlun
* Mizuki Sonoda
* Jon So-yon
* Choi Hee-jeong
* Hwang Hye-soo

### 1 goal

* Amy Harrison
* Ayesha Kirby
* Chloe O'Brien
* Liu Yan
* Pan Jiahui
* Qin Manman
* Zhang Zhu
* Sara Zohrabi
* Yui Hasegawa
* Hikaru Kitagawa
* Meika Nishida
* Choe Un-hwa
* Kim Phyong-hwa
* Kim So-hyang
* Ri Hui-jong
* Ri Hyang-sim
* Wi Jong-sim
* Park Ye-eun
* Song Ji-yoon

### Own goal

* Wang Ying (playing against South Korea)
* Shokhida Tojiddinova (playing against China PR)
    Source: the-afc.com