March 1 – The Women’s U-20 Asian Cup kicks off this weekend in Uzbekistan 2024 with eight teams in the finals of the 11th edition of the competition.
Hosted in Uzbekistan for the first time, all matches will be played in the capital city Tashkent, March 3 – 16.
Australia, China PR, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam came through two qualifying rounds to make it to the finals and join the three highest-seeded teams from the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship Thailand 2019 – Japan, DPR Korea and Korea Republic – as well as Uzbekistan, who automatically qualified as hosts.
The top four teams at Uzbekistan 2024 will qualify for the 2024 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia.
Korea Republic, chasing a fourth U-20 title, face Australia in the first match on Sunday at the Do’stlik Stadium. This is the fifth tournament meeting between the two nations at this level, with the most recent encounter being in the previous edition in 2019 when Korea came out on top in the third-place play-off.
A resurgent Australia, running hot after the hosting of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, have appeared at every Finals (nine) since joining the AFC and have finished fourth at each of the last two, with third place (2006) their highest finish.
The second Group A fixture is between Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei at the Jar Stadium. Both teams are making their fifth appearance in the finals.
Six-time champions Japan start as favourites in Group B and open against Vietnam. Japan, who won the U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2018 and finished second in 2022, have won all three previous meetings against Vietnam, who are making their sixth appearance at the finals with their quarter-final finish in 2004 being their best result.
In the other opening fixture in Group B on Monday, 2007 champions DPR Korea and 2006 winners China PR meet. North Korea are the only team to have never finished outside the top four at every edition of the competition, having won the most matches (39) and scoring the most goals (189) in the competition’s history.
The North Koreans were U-20 Women’s World Cup champions in 2006 and 2016, and are looking to break a streak of five consecutive runners-up finishes. China have finished third on five occasions and failed to reach the Knockouts for the first time in the previous edition.
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