2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup

2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup
2025年亚足联U-20亚洲杯
Tournament details
Host country	China
Dates	12 February – 1 March
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venues	4 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Australia (1st title)
Runners-up	Saudi Arabia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	93 (3 per match)
Attendance	44,626 (1,440 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kim Tae-won; Mukhammadali Urinboev; (4 goals each)
Best player	Alex Badolato
Best goalkeeper	Hamed Al-Shanqiti
Fair play award	Australia
	← 2023 2027 →

The 2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup was the 42nd edition of the AFC U-20 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia.

On 24 May 2024, the AFC announced that China would host the tournament.^[1] It was the first of three consecutive AFC U-20 Asian Cups to be held in China, preceding the 2027 and 2029 tournaments.

A total of 16 teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2005 eligible to participate. The top four teams qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile as the AFC representatives.

Uzbekistan were the title holders, having won the title in 2023. They were eliminated on penalties by South Korea in the quarter-finals. Australia clinched their first major youth title since joining the AFC, overcoming three-time winners Saudi Arabia on penalties.

Qualification

Qualification matches were played between 21 and 29 September 2024.^[2]

Qualified teams

A total of 16 teams, including hosts China, qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
China	Hosts	20th	Champions (1985)
Syria	Group A winners	12th	Champions (1994)
Uzbekistan	Group B winners	9th	Champions (2023)
South Korea	Group C winners	40th	Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
Saudi Arabia	Group D winners	15th	Champions (1986, 1992, 2018)
North Korea	Group E winners	14th	Champions (1976, 2006, 2010)
Indonesia	Group F winners	20th	Champions (1961)
Iran	Group G winners	22nd	Champions (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
Iraq	Group H winners	19th	Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
Japan	Group I winners	39th	Champions (2016)
Qatar	Group J winners	16th	Champions (2014)
Yemen	1st best runners-up	8th	Quarter-finals (1975)
Kyrgyzstan	2nd best runners-up	3rd	Group stage (2006, 2023)
Australia	3rd best runners-up	9th	Runners-up (2010)
Thailand	4th best runners-up	34th	Champions (1962, 1969)
Jordan	5th best runners-up	9th	Fourth place (2006)

Venues

The competition was held in four venues around Shenzhen.^[3]

Shenzhen
Bao'an	Guangming		Longhua
Bao'an Stadium	Shenzhen Youth Football Training Base Centre Stadium	Shenzhen Youth Football Training Base Pitch No.1	Longhua Cultural and Sports Center
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 500	Capacity: 2,364

Shenzhen

Match officials

The tournament implemented video assistant referees (VAR), a first in the tournament's history, starting from the semi-finals onwards.^[4]

Referees

Alex King
Ammar Mahfoodh
Shen Yinhao
Thoriq Alkatiri
Zaid Thamer Mohammed
Hiroki Kasahara
Abdullah Jamali
Qasim Al-Hatmi
Abdulhadi Al-Rowaily
Choi Hyun-jai
Ahmed Eisa Darwish
Asker Nadjafaliev

Assistant referees

James Lindsay
Mohamed Salman
Guo Jingtao
Luo Zheng
So Kai Man
Bangbang Syamsudar
Hayder Ubaydee
Takagi Takumi
Ali Jraq
Nasser Al-Busaidi
Khaled Khalaf
Cheon Jin-hee
Ismoil Nuraliev
Kijsathit Pattarapong
Yasser Al-Murshidi
Ruslan Serazitdinov

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 7 November 2024 in Shenzhen, China. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts China automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[5]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
China (hosts) Uzbekistan Iraq Japan	South Korea Australia Iran Jordan	Indonesia Saudi Arabia Syria Kyrgyzstan	Qatar Thailand Yemen North Korea

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2005 and on or before 31 December 2009 were 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.

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams were 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 tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[6]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
Drawing of lots.

All match times are in local time, (UTC+8)

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	3	0	10	3	+7	9	Knockout stage
2	China (H)	3	2	1	8	5	+3	6	Knockout stage
3	Qatar	3	1	2	6	5	+1	3
4	Kyrgyzstan	3	0	3	3	14	−11	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

12 February 2025

17:15

Australia	5–1	Kyrgyzstan
Jovanovic 4', 61' Bennie 15' Touré 26', 31'	Report	Almazbekov 73' (pen.)

Bao'an Stadium, Shenzhen

Attendance: 655

Referee: Choi Hyun-jai (South Korea)

12 February 2025