In a blink of an eye, the semifinals for the ASEAN U-23 Championship — officially known as the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup — are beckoning.
By Tuesday, the group-stage action will conclude with four teams marching on to the knockout round.
The qualification picture is trickier than usual given Group A has a full complement of four teams, while Groups B and C have just three each.
This means that only the group winners are guaranteed a semifinal berth, while the best-performing runners-up will be the fourth team to advance.
Given the uneven number of teams, results against the bottom side in Group A will not be taken into account in the final ranking of second-placed teams.
First, there is the matter of finishing inside the top two to at least stand a chance of progressing to the final four.
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Group tiebreakers
- Group points
- Points from game(s) between the tied teams
- Goal difference from game(s) between the tied teams
- Goals scored from game(s) between the tied teams
- If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams
- Overall group goal difference
- Overall group goals scored
- If only two teams are level and have played each other in the final group game, a penalty shootout determines places
- Disciplinary pointsYellow card: -1 point Indirect red card (second yellow): -3 points Direct red card: -3 points
- Drawing of lots
Runners-up ranking tiebreakers
- Points
- Goal difference
- Goals scored
- Wins
- Disciplinary points
- Drawing of lots
GROUP A
Tuesday, July 15
Malaysia 0-2 Philippines
Indonesia 8-0 Brunei Darussalam
Friday, July 18
Brunei Darussalam 1-7 Malaysia
Philippines 0-1 Indonesia
Monday, July 21
Indonesia vs. Malaysia (Jakarta, 8 p.m. local time)
Philippines vs. Brunei Darussalam (Bekasi, 8 p.m. local time)
Group A is shaping up as the trickiest — and that is not just because they are the only with four teams.
Indonesia remain the favourites to progress as group winners but a loss to Malaysia on Monday could really make things interesting.
That is because in the event that Philippines see off bottom team Brunei Darussalam as expected, three teams could be tied on six points.
Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia would also have a win each from the matches against each other, which means that the tiebreaker would go down to goal difference.
In that scenario, the unthinkable prospect of Indonesia missing out would be realised given they only managed a 1-0 win over Philippines, who — on their part — defeated Malaysia 2-0. It means that both Indonesia and Philippines currently hold a goal difference of +1, but defeat to Malaysia would see Indonesia’s reduce to 0 at the very least.
Top spot would then be decided by how many goals Malaysia beat Indonesia by, given they currently have a two-goal deficit to make up from that loss to Philippines.
Following two heavy defeats, Brunei have already been eliminated.
GROUP B
Wednesday, July 16
Cambodia 1-1 Laos
Saturday, July 19
Laos 0-3 Vietnam
Tuesday, July 22
Vietnam vs. Cambodia (Jakarta, 8 p.m. local time)
An opening draw between Cambodia and Laos means the situation in Group B is relatively straightforward.
There is no possibility of a tie for top spot. A draw on Tuesday will be enough for two-time defending champions Vietnam to qualify, while Cambodia will overtake them in first with an upset.
As long as Cambodia do not win, they will be eliminated even in second place given they will only have two points to their names at best, even if they draw with Vietnam. Group A’s runners-up are already guaranteed to have three points to their names.
It is because of this that Laos are already eliminated.
GROUP C
Wednesday, July 16
Myanmar 4-4 Timor-Leste
Saturday, July 19
Timor-Leste 0-4 Thailand
Tuesday, July 22
Thailand vs. Myanmar (Bekasi, 8 p.m. local time)
Group C is identical to Group B in the sense that it is Thailand who are currently firmly on course for the semifinals, unless the unthinkable happens and they suffer defeat at the hands of Myanmar.
That would see Myanmar progress by finishing top with four points after their opening draw with Timor-Leste, which would then make things interesting given Thailand will have to vie for the best runners-up berth, where the team from Group A will also have three points — meaning it will go down to goal difference and even goals scored.
Timor-Leste, like Laos, are no longer in the running to progress.
