2023 AFC U17 Asian Cup: How did India qualify despite defeat to hosts Saudi Arabia?
India suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia in the final game of the qualifiers and earned still qualified for the 2023 AFC U17 Asian Cup.
The Indian men’s football team earned qualification for the 2023 AFC U17 Asian Cup on Sunday, despite losing to hosts Saudi Arabia by 2-1 in the last qualifiers game. Facing the hosts in the Group D match at the Prince Saud Bin Jalawi Stadium in Al Khobar, India conceded the first goal in the 22nd minute, after Haji scored in the bottom corner of the net. Haji doubled the lead in the 58th minute as Thanglalsoun Gangte scored the solitary goal for India in the 95th minute.
India qualifies for AFC U17 Asian Cup despite defeat
While the match concluded 2-1 in Saudi Arabia’s favour, India managed to qualify for next year’s continental showpiece as one of the six best runner-ups across all groups. Heading into the Group D match, India and Saudi Arabia has three wins to their name, and the winner of Sunday’s game was guaranteed automatic qualification to the tournament. While India finished second in the Group D points table with nine points in four games, two-time U-17 Asian champions Saudi Arabia topped the table with 12 points.
In the points table for the runners-up, India found themselves placed fourth behind South Korea, China, and Afghanistan. Thailand and Laos were the other two runners-up who earned qualification. As the groups had varying number of teams, a special formula was used to determine the best runners-up.
India qualified for the main draw for a third consecutive time
As per Olympic.com, the results against the fourth-placed team in groups that had only four teams and the results against the fourth and fifth-placed teams in the groups having five teams were not considered for the final runners-up rankings. This is the ninth overall and third consecutive time the main draw of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup will feature the Indian team. The best results for India in the coveted tournament is quarter-final finishes in 2002 and 2022.
Meanwhile, the upcoming edition of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup was earlier scheduled to be held in Bahrain in May 2023. However, after Bahrain pulled out of the tournament as hosts, AFC is yet to confirm the new venue. It is pertinent to mention that the 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup will be the 20th edition of the tournament. Having said that, here’s the complete list of teams who have qualified for the AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023.
List of teams to earn qualification for AFC U-17 Asian Cup 2023
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Yemen
- Vietnam
- Australia
- Tajikistan
- Iran
- Uzbekistan
- South Korea
- China
- Afghanistan
- India
- Thailand
- Laos
