Kyrgyzstan beat Myanmar to advance to next year’s tournament in Qatar
(SEOUL, March 13 (Yonhap) – South Korea’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup qualifying Group B match will be held in Changwon, Gyeongnam, in September.
The Korea Football Association announced on Tuesday that the schedule for the Group B matches of the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers has been finalized.
South Korea will face Qatar on Sept. 6, followed by Kyrgyzstan on Sept. 9 and Myanmar on Sept. 12 at the Changwon Football Center in Gyeongnam. Kick-off times are to be determined.
The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup will be held in Qatar from April 15 to May 3 next year.
With a total of 43 teams in attendance, four teams were placed in Groups A through J, and three teams were assigned to Group K.
Sixteen teams will advance to the main event, including the top 11 teams from each group, the top four teams from each group, and host Qatar.
Qatar has an automatic berth in the main draw, but they will qualify in Group B with South Korea.
As such, all matches against Qatar will be considered friendlies and will not affect the result or ranking, meaning Korea will only need to beat Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan to advance to the knockout stage.
The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup will also serve as a men’s soccer qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The first through third-place finishers at the tournament will qualify for the Olympic Games, while the fourth-place finisher will play an intercontinental playoff (PO) against the fourth-place finisher from the African qualifiers for the Olympic berth.
As the Paris Olympics will feature U-23 players, the AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers will feature the 스포츠토토 U-22 Olympic team led by Hwang Sun-hong.