# 2018 AFC U-19 Championship

The 2018 AFC U-19 Championship was the 40th edition of the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. It took place in Indonesia, which was appointed as the host by the AFC on 25 July 2017, between 18 October and 4 November 2018. A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.
The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the AFC representatives. Saudi Arabia won their third title, and qualified together with runners-up South Korea and semi-finalists Qatar and Japan, which were the defending champions but eliminated by Saudi Arabia.

## Qualification
### Qualification process

Qualification matches were played between 24 October and 8 November 2017.
Although Indonesia had already qualified automatically as hosts, they also participated in the qualifiers and finished third place after going down 0–3 and 1–4 loss to South Korea and Malaysia sides respectively.
Chinese Taipei returned to the tournament finals for the first time since 1974 as one of the best group runners-up.
The 2018 qualifiers also witnessed a unique situation where two teams had to go to penalties to determine the higher-position team. It happened in Group C after Qatar and Iraq were tied in all tie-breaking criteria and both of them played among each other in the last match. Qatar won the penalties and finished top of the group while Iraq finished second.
Twelve out of 2018 qualified sixteen teams played in the 2016 finals.

### Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| Indonesia | Hosts | 17th | Champions (1961) |
| United Arab Emirates | Group A winners | 14th | Champions (2008) |
| Tajikistan | Group B winners | 4th | Quarter-finals (2016) |
| Qatar | Group C winners | 14th | Champions (2014) |
| Saudi Arabia | Group D winners | 14th | Champions (1986, 1992) |
| Jordan | Group E winners | 7th | Fourth place (2006) |
| South Korea | Group F winners | 38th | Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012) |
| China | Group G winners | 18th | Champions (1985) |
| Vietnam | Group H winners | 19th | Semi-finals (2016) |
| Japan | Group I winners | 37th | Champions (2016) |
| Australia | Group J winners | 7th | Runners-up (2010) |
| Iraq | Group C runners-up | 17th | Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000) |
| Thailand | Group I runners-up | 33rd | Champions (1962, 1969) |
| North Korea | Group J runners-up | 13th | Champions (1976, 2006, 2010) |
| Chinese Taipei | Group H runners-up | 10th | Third place (1966) |
| Malaysia | Group F runners-up | 23rd | Runners-up (1959, 1960, 1968) |
Notes:
* ↑ Vietnam between 1959 and 1974 were to play at AFC tournaments as South Vietnam. A separate North Vietnam state did not join FIFA and they mostly played against other communist and communist-sympathising countries. The Vietnam's 19 appearances included 11 appearances as South Vietnam.
* 1 2 3 4 5 The five best runners-up qualified for the final tournament.

## Venues

The matches were played in three venues around Greater Jakarta.
| Jakarta | Cibinong | Bekasi |
| Gelora Bung Karno | Pakansari | Patriot Candrabhaga |
| Capacity: 77,200 | Capacity: 30,000 | Capacity: 30,000 |
| JakartaBekasiCibinong |||

## Draw

The draw was held on 18 May 2018, 15:00 WIB (UTC+7), at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Indonesia automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Indonesia (hosts) Japan Saudi Arabia Vietnam | Iraq Tajikistan South Korea United Arab Emirates | Australia Qatar China Thailand | North Korea Jordan Malaysia Chinese Taipei |

## Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 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.

## 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:
* 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 times are local, WIB (UTC+7).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Qatar | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Indonesia (H) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 | |
| 4 | Chinese Taipei | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 15 | −13 | 0 | |
* 1 2 3 Head-to-head results: United Arab Emirates 2–1 Qatar, Qatar 6–5 Indonesia, Indonesia 1–0 United Arab Emirates. Head-to-head standings: Qatar: 3 pts, 0 GD, 7 GF Indonesia: 3 pts, 0 GD, 6 GF United Arab Emirates: 3 pts, 0 GD, 2 GF

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 3 | +10 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Thailand | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | North Korea | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 3 | |
| 4 | Iraq | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | South Korea | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Australia | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Jordan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 4 | |
| 4 | Vietnam | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Saudi Arabia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Tajikistan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | China | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | Malaysia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 1 | |

## Knockout stage

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

### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 28 October – Jakarta | 28 October – Jakarta | | | |
| Qatar (a.e.t.) | 7 | | | |
| Qatar (a.e.t.) | 7 | 1 November – Cibinong | 1 November – Cibinong | | |
| Thailand | 3 | 1 November – Cibinong | 1 November – Cibinong | |
| Thailand | 3 | Qatar | 1 | |
| 29 October – Bekasi | 29 October – Bekasi | | Qatar | 1 | |
| 29 October – Bekasi | 29 October – Bekasi | South Korea | 3 | |
| South Korea | 1 | South Korea | 3 | |
| South Korea | 1 | | | | 4 November – Cibinong | 4 November – Cibinong |
| Tajikistan | 0 | | | | 4 November – Cibinong | 4 November – Cibinong |
| Tajikistan | 0 | | | | South Korea | 1 |
| 28 October – Jakarta | 28 October – Jakarta | | | | | South Korea | 1 |
| 28 October – Jakarta | 28 October – Jakarta | | | | Saudi Arabia | 2 |
| Japan | 2 | | | | Saudi Arabia | 2 |
| Japan | 2 | 1 November – Cibinong | 1 November – Cibinong | | | |
| Indonesia | 0 | 1 November – Cibinong | 1 November – Cibinong | | | |
| Indonesia | 0 | Japan | 0 | | | |
| 29 October – Bekasi | 29 October – Bekasi | | Japan | 0 | | | |
| 29 October – Bekasi | 29 October – Bekasi | Saudi Arabia | 2 | |
| Saudi Arabia | 3 | Saudi Arabia | 2 | |
| Australia | 1 | | | |

### Quarter-finals

Winners qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

### Final
## Winners

* 2018 AFC U-19 Championship
* Saudi Arabia Third title

## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Top Goalscorer | Most Valuable Player | Fair Play award |
| Abdulrasheed Umaru | Turki Al-Ammar | Saudi Arabia |

## Goalscorers

There were 117 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 3.77 goals per match.
7 goals
* Abdulrasheed Umaru
5 goals
* Hashim Ali
* Jeon Se-jin
4 goals
* Taisei Miyashiro
* Turki Al-Ammar
* Cho Young-wook
3 goals
* Todd Rivaldo Ferre
* Witan Sulaeman
* Koki Saito
* Korawich Tasa
* Ali Saleh
2 goals
* Taichi Hara
* Omar Al-Zebdieh
* Hadi Fayyadh
* Kang Kuk-chol
* Khaled Mansour
* Khalid Al-Ghannam
* Safi Al-Zaqarta
* Suphanat Mueanta
* Ahmad Fawzi
* Rashed Mubarak
* Majed Rashed
1 goal
* Nathaniel Atkinson
* Ben Folami
* Ramy Najjarine
* Oliver Puflett
* Angus Thurgate
* Tao Qianglong
* Xu Yue
* Wang Chung-yu
* Wu Yen-shu
* Egy Maulana Vikri
* Luthfi Kamal
* Saddil Ramdani
* Hasan Abdulkareem
* Moamel Abdulridha
* Wakaa Ramadhan
* Hiroki Abe
* Shunki Higashi
* Hiroki Ito
* Takefusa Kubo
* Kyosuke Tagawa
* Yuta Taki
* Mohammad Bani Atieh
* Mohammad Al-Zu'bi
* Pak Kwang-chon
* Kye Tam
* Yousef Ayman
* Ahmed Suhail
* Mohammed Waad
* Nasser Al Yazidi
* Saud Abdulhamid
* Firas Al-Buraikan
* Faraj Al-Ghashayan
* Abdulmohsen Al-Qahtani
* Salem Al-Salem
* Choi Jun
* Kim Hyun-woo
* Um Won-sang
* Sheriddin Boboev
* Ehson Panjshanbe
* Sharafdzhon Solehov
* Daler Yodgorov
* Kritsada Kaman
* Sampan Kesi
* Thirapak Prueangna
* Sakunchai Saengthopho
* Abdullah Al-Naqbi
* Lê Văn Nam
* Lê Xuân Tú
* Nhâm Mạnh Dũng
1 own goal
* Lee Jae-ik (against Qatar)
* Vahdat Hanonov (against Malaysia)

## Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following four teams from AFC qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup |
| Qatar | 28 October 2018 | 3 (1981, 1995, 2015) |
| Japan | 28 October 2018 | 9 (1979, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2017) |
| South Korea | 29 October 2018 | 14 (1979, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017) |
| Saudi Arabia | 29 October 2018 | 8 (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2011, 2017) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

## Concerns and controversies

An error was made before the start of Jordan–South Korea Group C match on 22 October 2018, where the operator played North Korean national anthem instead of South Korean national anthem. The wrong anthem was stopped immediately and the operator has since been replaced.