Field set for U-20 Asian Cup

Australia, one of four Asian nations that featured at Chile 2025, have failed to advance to the final stage of qualification for next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup™.

The Young Socceroos were the defending U-20 Asian Cup champions but a 2-0 defeat against Indonesia in qualification for next year’s continental finals has sent them tumbling out of contention for the U-20 World Cup.

Japan, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia were the continent’s other representatives at the previous edition and they all safely secured passage to the 16-team U-20 Asian Cup.

Uzbekistan will co-host the global youth showpiece next year with Azerbaijan and they were one of four nations that finished the first stage of qualification with a perfect record of three wins from as many matches.

Saudi Arabia, DPR Korea and Japan also banked maximum points, with Kashima Antlers starlet Homare Tokuda finding the back of the net in all three of Japan’s victories.

Meanwhile, India are back in the final tournament for the first time in two decades and Lebanon will appear for just the third time.

The U-20 Asian Cup will be played in China PR from 24 March – 10 April, with the top four nations, in addition to Uzbekistan, securing automatic qualification to the U-20 World Cup.

Images courtesy of the AFC