Overview of the 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers of Southeast Asian teams

U23 châu Á - Ảnh 1. — Cambodia U23 unbeaten in 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers - Photo: KHMERTIMES

In Group B, U23 Myanmar only got 1 point after three matches, ranking last in the group. This is a really unfortunate result for Myanmar when they had quite good results against two strong teams, Kuwait (0-0 draw) and Japan (lost 1-2 in extra time).

U23 Singapore is in the same group C with Vietnam and caused great disappointment with 3 losses. Including a heavy 1-4 defeat against Bangladesh.

In group D, U23 Timor Leste met two strong opponents, Australia and China. However, Timor Leste had acceptable results when they lost to China 1-2, lost to Australia 0-6 and beat Northern Mariana Islands 6-0 to finish third in this group.

Group F has two representatives of Southeast Asian football, Thailand and Malaysia. If Thailand played up to expectations by winning a ticket to the final round as the top team, Malaysia would only be ranked 3rd in this group. A disappointing result when they only won against Mongolia U23 and lost to Lebanon and Thailand.

Cambodia U23 impressed by being unbeaten in Group G, finishing second behind Iraq. They have 5 points after 3 matches, scoring 1 goal and not conceding any. However, Cambodia could not make it into the play-off group.

Meanwhile, it is not surprising that U23 Brunei received a "basket" of goals in the qualifying round when placed in group H. U23 Brunei is at the bottom of this group, has no points, does not score and is "shot" into the net 29 times.

Another disappointing team was U23 Indonesia, who finished second in Group J with 4 points and were not strong enough to qualify for the play-offs. The key to Indonesia’s elimination was a 0-0 draw with Laos in the opening match. Also in this group, Laos impressed with 4 points, with a surprise draw with Indonesia and a 3-0 victory over Macau.

Finally, U23 Philippines ranked 2nd in Group K with 6 points. With a goal difference of +4, Philippines ranked 7th out of 11 best second-placed teams, not enough to qualify for the play-off round.

Summary of achievements of U23 Southeast Asian teams:

Team	The draw	Score	Ranking in the table
Myanmar U23	B	1	Bottom of the table
U23 Singapore	C	0	Bottom of the table
U23 Vietnam	C	9	First place
U23 Timor Leste	D	3	3rd place
Thailand U23	F	7	First place
U23 Malaysia	F	3	3rd place
U23 Cambodia	G	5	Second
U23 Brunei	H	0	Bottom of the table
U23 Indonesia	J	4	Second
U23 Philippines	K	6	Second
Laos U23	J	4	Third place