ASIA U23 TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE 2024
9:00 p.m. April 29: U23 Japan – U23 Iraq (Semi-final 1)
00:30 April 30: U23 Indonesia – U23 Uzbekistan (Semi-final 2)
10:30 p.m. May 2: Two losing teams in the semi-finals (Third place match)
10:30 p.m. May 3: Two winning teams in the semi-finals (Finals)
Thus, the quarterfinals of the U23 Asian Championship have officially ended. The four teams that won the right to enter the semi-finals are U23 Indonesia, U23 Uzbekistan, U23 Japan and U23 Iraq. At least, these teams have tickets to attend the Olympic play-off round. The top three teams will win direct tickets. The 4th ranked team will play a play-off with the African representative U23 Guinea.
U23 Indonesia aims for a ticket to attend the 2024 Olympics (Photo: PSSI).
In particular, the appearance of U23 Indonesia in this round is a huge surprise. In the quarterfinals, coach Shin Tae Yong’s team won against U23 Korea in an overwhelming match. U23 Indonesia demonstrated a modern pressing style and made the continent’s top team suffer.
They deserve to be in the semi-finals after what they have shown. U23 Indonesia’s opponent in the upcoming round is U23 Uzbekistan, the 2018 tournament champion. In recent years, the Central Asian team has always been a force in the U23 Asian tournament. They have reached the semi-finals in four consecutive tournaments.
There are notable details, in the past, both U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Indonesia have never won tickets to attend the Olympics since this tournament was played at the U23 level in 1992. They will achieve their goal if they win tickets. attend the 2024 Olympics if they win in the semi-finals. The losing team still has two other chances in the third-place match of the U23 Asian Championship and the play-off match against U23 Guinea.
Japan U23 clashed with Iraq U23 in the semi-finals of the Asian U23 tournament (Photo: AFC).
The match between U23 Indonesia and U23 Uzbekistan takes place at 00:30 on April 30. Before that, at 9:00 p.m. on April 29, Japan U23 will face Iraq U23. This is a confrontation between the two champions in 2013 (Iraq) and 2016 (Japan).
U23 Japan has not been absent from the Olympics since 1996. They are naturally rated higher than Iraq U23. In the encounter a few months ago, Japan U23 won 1-0 against Iraq U23. Notably, in the 2016 Asian U23 Championship, Japan U23 defeated Iraq U23 with a score of 2-1 in the semi-finals, before being crowned champion.
Tags: Determining Asian U23 semifinal pairs Indonesias miracle
