2018 AFC U-23 Championship

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 biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (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 defeated Vietnam 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.

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.

Notes:

Venues
The competition was played in four venues in four cities, all in the province of Jiangsu.

Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 24 October 2017, 16:00 CST (UTC+8), at the Traders Fudu Hotel in Changzhou. 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 final tournament and qualification, 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
 * 🇨🇳 Fu Ming
 * 🇨🇳 Ma Ning
 * 🇭🇰 Liu Kwok Man
 * 🇮🇷 Alireza Faghani
 * 🇮🇶 Ali Sabah
 * 🇮🇶 Mohanad Qasim Eesee Sarray
 * 🇯🇵 Ryuji Sato
 * 🇯🇵 Jumpei Iida
 * 🇯🇴 Adham Makhadmeh
 * 🇰🇷 Kim Dong-jin
 * 🇰🇷 Ko Hyung-jin
 * Ahmed Al-Kaf
 * 🇶🇦 Abdulrahman Al-Jassim
 * 🇶🇦 Khamis Al-Marri
 * Fahad Al-Mirdasi
 * Turki Al-Khudhayr
 * Muhammad Taqi
 * Hettikamkanamge Perera
 * Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed
 * 🇺🇿 Ravshan Irmatov
 * 🇺🇿 Valentin Kovalenko


 * Assistant referees


 * 🇦🇺 Matthew Cream
 * 🇧🇭 Ebrahim Saleh
 * 🇧🇭 Yaser Tulefat
 * 🇨🇳 Cao Yi
 * 🇨🇳 Huo Weiming
 * 🇮🇷 Mohammadreza Mansouri
 * 🇮🇷 Reza Sokhandan
 * 🇯🇵 Yagi Akane
 * 🇯🇵 Toru Sagara
 * 🇯🇴 Ahmad Al-Roalle
 * 🇰🇷 Yoon Kwang-yeol
 * 🇰🇬 Sergei Grishchenko
 * Mohd Yusri Mohamad
 * Abu Bakar Al-Amri
 * 🇶🇦 Saud Al-Maqaleh
 * 🇶🇦 Taleb Al-Marri
 * Mohammed Al-Abakry
 * Abdullah Al-Shalawi
 * Ronnie Koh Min Kiat
 * Palitha Hemathunga
 * Mohamed Al-Hammadi
 * Hasan Al-Mahri
 * 🇺🇿 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):
 * 1) Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 2) Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 3) Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
 * 4) 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;
 * 5) Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 6) Goals scored in all group matches;
 * 7) Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
 * 8) 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);
 * 9) Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CST (UTC+8).

Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Articles 12.1 and 12.2).

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.

Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Tournament team rankings
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Broadcasting rights

 * Arab League: beIN Sports (MENA), Alkaas Sports Channels
 * 🇦🇺 Australia: Fox Sports Australia
 * 🇨🇳 China: CCTV, PPTV, Guangdong Sports
 * ASEAN: Fox Sports Asia
 * 🇰🇷 South Korea: JTBC3 Fox Sports
 * Vietnam: VTV (shared by Fox Sports Asia)