List of 16 teams that have won tickets to the 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals; impressive achievements of Vietnam U23

The final qualifying round matches took place last night (September 12) and early this morning (September 13, Vietnam time) to determine the 16 teams participating in the final round of the 2024 AFC U23 Championship.

The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will take place from April 15 to May 3 in Qatar. Source: YouTube)

Notably, Southeast Asia has 4 representatives in the finals, accounting for 1/4 of the teams. Following U23 Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia managed to "squeeze through the narrow door" to enter the finals. Malaysia ranked 2nd in Group H, the group with Thailand.

U23 Malaysia entered the tournament as the fourth best team in the qualifying round, the last wild card. According to the rules, in addition to the 11 top teams in the qualifying round, the four best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals along with host Qatar.

Standing one place above Malaysia in the group of second-placed teams with the best results is U23 China. The team from the billion-people country has 4 points after the group stage, equal to the top team in Group G, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but has a lower secondary index. Group G has only 3 teams (the remaining team is India, only Maldives withdrew).

The remaining second-placed teams that won wildcard tickets to the finals include second-placed team in Group F Kuwait and second-placed team in Group I Tajikistan.

The 11 group winners qualified for the finals, including Jordan (Group A), South Korea (Group B), U23 Vietnam (C), Japan (D), Uzbekistan (E), Iraq (F), UAE (G), Thailand (H), Australia (I), Saudi Arabia (J) and Indonesia (K).

Most of Asia's strongest under-23 teams, except Iran, are in the squad. Iran finished second in Group E with the fifth-best qualifying record, just enough to keep them out.

Saudi Arabia are the defending champions of the tournament, having last won the tournament in 2022. South Korea won in 2020, Uzbekistan in 2018, Japan in 2016 and Iraq in 2013.

Jordan, South Korea, Japan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Australia and Saudi Arabia are also the teams that have participated in the finals the most times, 6 times each.

U23 Vietnam is in the group of teams with the next highest number of participations with 5 appearances in the final round. The number of participations of U23 Vietnam is equal to the host Qatar, UAE, Thailand and China.

U23 Vietnam is also the team with the best performance among the teams that have participated in the tournament 5 times. We are the only team among the above mentioned teams that have reached the final (in 2018, lost 1-2 to Uzbekistan).

The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will take place from April 15 to May 3 next year in Qatar.