2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification

2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Tajikistan (Group A); North Korea (Group B); Palestine (Group C); Vietnam (Group D)
Dates	3–12 April 2017[1]
Teams	21 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	38
Goals scored	206 (5.42 per match)
Attendance	138,337 (3,640 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Maysa Jbarah (13 goals)

The 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification was the qualification tournament for the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup.[2]

A total of 21 teams entered the qualification tournament, which decided four of the eight participating teams in the final tournament held in Jordan.[3] This tournament also served as the first stage of Asian qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the top five teams of the final tournament qualifying for the World Cup.[4]

Draw

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 24 teams entered the competition, with Japan, Australia, and China PR automatically qualified for the final tournament by their position as the top three teams of the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup and thus did not participate in the qualifying competition. Jordan also automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, but decided to also participate in the qualifying competition.[5]

The draw was held on 21 January 2017, 15:00 AST (UTC+2), at the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan.[6][7] The 21 teams were drawn into one group of six teams and three groups of five teams.[5]

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup final tournament and qualification. The following restrictions were also applied:[8][9]

The four teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.[10]
As Iran and Syria had indicated they would not travel to Palestine, they would not be drawn into the group hosted by Palestine.

Automatically qualified for final tournament and not participating in qualification
Japan Australia China
Participating in qualification
Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5 (unranked)
South Korea Thailand Vietnam (H) Jordan (Q)	Myanmar Chinese Taipei Uzbekistan Philippines	Hong Kong Bahrain Lebanon (W) Iran	India Palestine (H)	Guam (W) Iraq North Korea (H) Singapore Syria Tajikistan (H) United Arab Emirates

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualification group hosts
(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results
(W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter

Format

In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The four group winners qualified for the final tournament. If Jordan won their group, the runner-up of their group also qualified for the final tournament.[7]

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 tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 11.5):[2]

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.

Groups

The matches were played between 3–12 April 2017.[7]

Schedule[11]
Matchday	Group A		Groups B & D		Group C
Matchday	Dates	Matches	Dates	Matches	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	3 April 2017	3 v 1, 4 v 6, 2 v 5	3 April 2017	3 v 2, 5 v 4	3 April 2017	3 v 1
Matchday 2	5 April 2017	1 v 5, 2 v 4, 3 v 6	5 April 2017	4 v 1, 5 v 3	5 April 2017	2 v 3
Matchday 3	7 April 2017	5 v 3, 6 v 2, 1 v 4	7 April 2017	1 v 5, 2 v 4	7 April 2017	1 v 2
Matchday 4	10 April 2017	4 v 5, 6 v 1, 2 v 3	9 April 2017	2 v 5, 3 v 1	—
Matchday 5	12 April 2017	5 v 6, 3 v 4, 1 v 2	11 April 2017	4 v 3, 1 v 2	—

Group A

All matches were held in Tajikistan.[12]
Times listed were UTC+5.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan[lower-alpha 1]	5	5	0	0	37	3	+34	15	Final tournament
2	Philippines	5	3	1	1	18	6	+12	10	Final tournament
3	Bahrain	5	2	2	1	10	8	+2	8
4	United Arab Emirates	5	2	1	2	5	11	−6	7
5	Tajikistan (H)	5	1	0	4	3	23	−20	3
6	Iraq	5	0	0	5	0	22	−22	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Notes:

Jordan, as final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results.

3 April 2017

13:00

Bahrain	0–6	Jordan
	Report	Jebreen 9' Jbarah 22', 30', 43' Al-Naber 86' Al-Masri 90'

Pamir Stadium, Dushanbe

Attendance: 40

Referee: Rebecca Durcau (Australia)

3 April 2017