Thailand Tiebreakers: Participants for 2020 AFC U-23 Championship to be confirmed tonight

The Australian Men’s U-23 National Team will conclude their 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualification campaign in Cambodia this evening when they face Korea Republic (kick-off 9.00pm AEDT).

Australia are currently second in Group H of qualifying and are atop the standings of second-placed teams heading into the final day of fixtures.

However, with Pakistan having withdrawn from Group F prior to the commencement of the qualification matches, AFC competition regulations will be applied to compare teams across groups with uneven numbers.

The simple equation is that Australia will advance to the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship should they defeat the Korea Republic, while a draw will place Graham Arnold’s men in a strong position to secure progression to the tournament proper in Thailand next January.

However, should Australia be defeated by Korea Republic, they will need to wait on other results across the other groups when the match equalisation method is applied to find out whether they will progress to the AFC U-23 Championship in Thailand next year has been achieved.

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Olyroos v Cambodia
Graham Arnold's side were too strong for Cambodia in their opening Group H match, winning 6-0 on Saturday morning (AEDT)

Due to the varying number of participating teams in the 11 groups, the second-placed participating teams in each group will have played a different number of matches.

AFC regulations state that all participating teams shall be compared across the same number of matches, which means that the results between teams that finish second in their group, and teams that finish last, will be considered null and void.

In the event of finishing second in Group H, Australia would be compared to the ten other second-placed sides through:

a) greater number of points
b) goal difference
c) greater number of goals scored
d) application of AFC’s Fair Play criteria
e) drawing of lots

Socceroos.com.au will have a full wrap of the Australian Men’s U-23 National Team’s match against Korea Republic – including whether progression to the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship in Thailand has been achieved – on Wednesday morning.

Gersbach
Australia beat Chinese Taipei 6-0 on Sunday evening (AEDT)