2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup

2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup
كأس آسيا لكرة القدم للسيدات 2018
Tournament details
Host country	Jordan
City	Amman
Dates	6–20 April
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (2nd title)
Runners-up	Australia
Third place	China
Fourth place	Thailand
Tournament statistics
Matches played	17
Goals scored	66 (3.88 per match)
Attendance	31,537 (1,855 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Li Ying (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Mana Iwabuchi
Fair play award	Japan

The 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup was the 19th edition of the AFC Women's Asian Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament in Asia competed by the women's national teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was originally scheduled to be held in Jordan between 7 and 22 April 2018, but later was changed to 6 to 20 April 2018.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The tournament served as the final stage of Asian qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the top five teams qualifying for the World Cup in France.^[4]

Japan defeated Australia 1–0 in the final to win their second consecutive title. In the third-place match the same day, China PR defeated Thailand 3–1.^[5]

Qualification

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 21 January 2017.^[6] The top three finishers of the last AFC Women's Cup qualified automatically and did not have to enter qualifying, while Jordan also qualified automatically as hosts but decided to also participate in the qualifying competition.^[7] The matches were played from 3 to 12 April 2017.^[8]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the tournament.^[9]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event^[10]
Jordan	Hosts	2nd	Group stage (2014)	51
Japan	2014 champions	16th	Champions (2014)	11
Australia	2014 runners-up	6th	Champions (2010)	6
China	2014 third place	14th	Champions (1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2006)	17
Philippines	Group A runners-up^{[note 1]}	9th	Group stage (1981, 1983, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003)	72
South Korea	Group B winners	12th	Third place (2003)	16
Thailand	Group C winners	16th	Champions (1983)	30
Vietnam	Group D winners	8th	Group stage (1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014)	35

Notes:

↑ Since the Group A winners Jordan already automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, Philippines also qualified for the final tournament as runners-up.^[11]

Venues

The competition was played in two venues in the city of Amman.

Amman	Amman International Stadium King Abdullah II Stadium	Amman
Amman International Stadium		King Abdullah II Stadium

Capacity: 17,619		Capacity: 13,000

Draw

The final draw was held on 9 December 2017, 13:00 EET (UTC+2), at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Center on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea.^[12] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams.^[13] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Jordan automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.^[14]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Jordan (hosts) Japan	Australia China	South Korea Thailand	Vietnam Philippines

Squads

Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 31.4 and 31.5).^[15]

Match officials

A total of 10 referees and 12 assistant referees were appointed for the final tournament.

Referees

Kate Jacewicz
Casey Reibelt
Qin Liang
Mahsa Ghorbani
Yoshimi Yamashita
Ri Hyang-ok
Oh Hyeon-jeong
Thein Thein Aye
Edita Mirabidova
Công Thị Dung

Assistant referees

Cui Yongmei
Fang Yan
Uvena Fernandes
Ensieh Khabaz
Maiko Hagio
Naomi Teshirogi
Hong Kum-nyo
Kim Kyoung-min
Lee Seul-gi
Heba Saadieh
Rohaidah Bte Mohd Nasir
Trương Thị Lệ Trinh

Group stage

The top two teams of each group qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup as well as the semi-finals. The third-placed team of each group entered the fifth-placed match.

Tiebreakers

Teams are 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 tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 11.5):^[15]

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 are 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 times are local, EEST (UTC+3).^[16]

Schedule
Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	6–7 April 2018	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	9–10 April 2018	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	12–13 April 2018	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	3	3	0	15	1	+14	9	Knockout stage and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
2	Thailand	3	2	1	9	6	+3	6	Knockout stage and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
3	Philippines	3	1	2	3	7	−4	3	2019 FIFA Women's World Cup playoff
4	Jordan (H)	3	0	3	3	16	−13	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

6 April 2018

16:45

China	4–0	Thailand
Song Duan 56', 77' Wang Shuang 63' Li Ying 67'	Report

Amman International Stadium, Amman

Attendance: 5,060

Referee: Kate Jacewicz (Australia)

6 April 2018