2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup


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

Qualification

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 21 January 2017. 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. The matches were played from 3 to 12 April 2017.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the tournament.
TeamQualified asAppearancePrevious best performanceFIFA ranking
at start of event
2nd 51
16th 11
6th 6
14th 17
9th 72
12th 16
16th 30
8th 35

Venues

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

Amman
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, at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Center on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea. The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. 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.
Pot [|1]Pot [|2]Pot 3Pot 4

Squads

Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.

Match officials

A total of 10 referees and 12 assistant referees were appointed for the final tournament.
;Referees
;Assistant referees
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, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. 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;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
  8. Disciplinary points ;
  9. Drawing of lots.
All times are local, EEST.
MatchdayDatesMatches
Matchday 16–7 April 20181 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 29–10 April 20184 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 312–13 April 20181 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary.

Bracket


Fifth place match

Winner qualified for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Semi-finals

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Third place match

Final

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Most Valuable PlayerTop ScorerFairplay Award
Mana Iwabuchi Li Ying

Goalscorers

Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup

The following five teams from AFC qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup1
9 4 20186
12 4 20181
13 4 20186
13 4 20187
16 4 20182

Broadcasting rights and sponsorships

Le Sports acquired the all-media broadcasting and signal production rights in China in 2015, but they collapsed due to financial problems thus giving in all the rights they've acquired and transferred them to China Central Television and PP Sports in 2017. Tire manufacturer Continental announced they would be official sponsor.