AFC U-16 Championship India 2016: Group A [PREVIEW]

AFC – GOA, With Thursday’s draw for the AFC U-16 Championship India 2016 now complete, join the-afc.com as we take a closer look at the teams in Group A.

GROUP A

INDIA

Qualified as: Hosts/Runners-up in Group E (3rd best)
Appearance: 7th
Best finish: Quarter-finals (2002)
Last time out: Did not qualify

Hosts India will be making their seventh appearance at the AFC U-16 Championship and will be hoping home advantage can help them better their previous best achievement in the tournament, when they reached the quarter-finals in 2002.

Having failed to make it to the 2014 edition after finishing third in their group behind Kuwait and Tajikistan, the young Blue Tigers produced a better showing in the qualifiers this time around, booking their place in the finals as the third-best runners-up.

An impressive 5-0 victory over Bahrain was followed up by a 3-0 loss to eventual Group E winners Iran before the South Asians secured second place with a 6-0 hammering of Lebanon, with Suresh Singh Wangjam netting a hat-trick to take his tally in the qualifiers to four following the midfielder’s strike in the opening fixture.

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Qualified as: Group E winners
Appearance: 10th
Best finish: Champions (2008)
Last time out: Eliminated in quarter-finals (lost 4-2 on penalties to DPR Korea after 0-0 draw)

Iran ensured participation in the AFC U-16 Championship finals for a tenth time, scoring 12 times with just one conceded as the 2016 qualifying Group E hosts finished top of the table with victories over Lebanon (3-1), India (3-0), and Bahrain (6-0).

Since making their AFC U-16 Championship debut in 1996 Iran appeared in all but one of the following nine tournaments, finishing runners-up in 2000 before going on to claim their first title with a 2-1 defeat of Korea Republic int he 2008 final.

Iran’s hopes of a second title ended at the quarter-final stage of the 2014 AFC U-16 Champions in Thailand, where they lost to eventual champions DPR Korea in a penalty shootout following a 0-0 draw of their last-eight encounter.

SAUDI ARABIA

Qualified as: Group D winners
Appearance: 10th
Best finish: Champions (1985, 1988)
Last time out: Eliminated in group stage (bottom of Group D with two points)

Champions and third-place finishers twice in the first five AFC U-16 Championships, Saudi Arabia have yet to repeat their success of the formative years of the competition – when they won the inaugural tournament in 1985 and claimed a second title in 1988 – bowing out of the last two editions at the group stage.

The Saudis secured their place in the finals for a third successive AFC U-16 Championship by comfortably topping Group D, which had been reduced to three teams following the withdrawal of Pakistan.

Five different players were on the scoresheet as the 2006 and 2008 quarter-finalists began their 2016 qualifying campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Group D hosts Bangladesh before booking their passage to India with an equally emphatic 6-2 triumph over Gulf neighbours the UAE.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Qualified as: Runners-up in Group D (4th best)
Appearance: 7th
Best finish: Runners-up (1990)
Last time out: Did not qualify

A 6-1 triumph over hosts Bangladesh was sufficient for the United Arab Emirates to book their place in the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship as runners-up in Group D, which had been reduced to three teams following the withdrawal of Pakistan.

After skipper Majid Rashid netted a hat-trick in the opening win over Bangladesh, the tables were turned on the UAE by Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia as they crashed to a 6-2 defeat to the eventual table-toppers but the Emiratis had still done enough to qualify to the finals as the fourth ranked of the group runners-up.

Losing finalists in 1990 – finishing runners-up to Qatar on home soil in what was their tournament debut, – the UAE also made it to the last four in 2008 and the quarter-finals in 2002, again as hosts, and in 2010, which was the last time they took part in the AFC U-16 Championship.