2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification
The 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification was the qualification tournament for the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup.
A total of 21 teams entered the qualification tournament, which decided four of the eight participating teams in the final tournament held in Jordan. 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.
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.The draw was held on 21 January 2017, 15:00 AST, at the Grand Hyatt in Amman, Jordan. The 21 teams were drawn into one group of six teams and three groups of five teams.
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:
- The four teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
- As Iran and Syria had indicated they would not travel to Palestine, they would not be drawn into the group hosted by Palestine.
- Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
- ': Qualification group hosts
- ': Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results
- : Withdrew after draw
Format
Tiebreakers
Teams were ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :- 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 ;
- Drawing of lots.
Groups
Group A
- All matches were held in Tajikistan.
- Times listed were.
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Group B
- All matches were held in North Korea.
- Times listed were.
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Group C
- All matches were held in Palestine.
- Times listed were.
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Group D
- All matches were held in Vietnam.
- Times listed were.
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Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in AFC Women's Asian Cup[|1] |
| 4 9 2016 | 1 | ||
| 21 1 2017 | 15 | ||
| 21 1 2017 | 5 | ||
| 21 1 2017 | 13 | ||
| 10 4 2017 | 8 | ||
| 11 | |||
| 7 4 2017 | 15 | ||
| 7 |