Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Pekanbaru: The AFC U-22 Championship 2013 qualifiers have concluded with the last group, Group E, finishing their matches on Sunday as Australia became the last team as the group’s runners-up to qualify for the finals.
Fourteen sides -- Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Japan, DPR Korea, China, Korea Republic, Myanmar and Australia -- won the finals tickets after finishing as either the group leaders or runners-up while Oman became the 15th team to qualify as the best third-best team from all the seven groups.
The host of the finals (totally 16 teams in finals), who will be decided in an AFC Executive Committee meeting on July 19, will gain a direct entry to the tournament proper to be held on 11-26 January 2014.
However, Oman and Thailand are bidding to host the finals and if the Omanis’ bid is successful, the ticket will go to the next third-best team, Yemen.
Some interesting stats from the qualification campaign of the competition’s inaugural edition:
23: The highest number of goals, by Korea Republic, ahead of Japan’s 20.
33: The highest number of goals conceded, by The Philippines, 13 more than Chinese Taipei’s 20.
10-0: The biggest win margin, for Korea Republic over The Philippines.
10: The highest number of goals by a player, by Malaysia striker Rozaimi Abdul Rahman, ahead of Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Yahya who scored six. However, Malaysia finished 3rd in Group G and failed to qualify for the tournament proper.