AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers: Where did India finish amongst the second-placed teams? twitter facebook reddit twitter facebook reddit

The Indian players were seen fist-pumping and hugging each other after Dheeraj Singh made two incredible saves in the tie-breaker against Kyrgyzstan to ensure the second spot in Group E in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers last Saturday. However, their celebrations were short-lived as they soon found out that their win against Oman won't be counted while determining the rankings of the second-placed teams from all groups.

Why did India fail to qualify for AFC U-23 Asian Cup?

India finished with four points from three games and occupied the second spot in Group E behind leaders UAE. They won 2-1 against Oman in their campaign opener which opened a window of hope to qualify for the main event. And after squeezing themselves into second place ahead of Kyrgyzstan, there was an air of optimisim, at least for a few minutes.

However, a sense of despair descended on the team as they came so near to make history and yet remained so far. Amongst the 11 groups participating in the Asian Under-23 qualifiers, three clusters had only three participating nations while one of the groups had only two contestants. Hence, from the remaining seven groups, the result against the bottom-placed team weren't counted when determining the best second-placed team amongst all groups.

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So that meant India's result against Oman (who finished fourth in India's group) was not considered. This implied that India just had one point from the two matches (for the second-placed team ranking).

Where did India finish amongst second-placed teams?

India finished on the ninth spot amongst the second-placed ranked teams. Only the top four teams qualified for the Asian Cup Under-23 main event.

Which teams qualified for AFC U-23 Asian Cup as the best second-placed teams?

Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan qualified as the best-four second-placed teams. Let us take a look at the table of the second-placed teams.