2021 WAFF U-23 Championship

2021 WAFF U-23 Championship

بطولة غرب آسيا لكرة القدم تحت 23 عاما
Tournament details
Host country	Saudi Arabia
Dates	4–12 October
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation) (from 1 sub-confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Jordan (1st title)
Runners-up	Saudi Arabia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	51 (2.83 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mohammad Aburiziq (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Yazan Al-Naimat [1]
Best goalkeeper	Nawaf Al-Aqidi [2]
← 2015 2022 →

The 2021 WAFF U-23 Championship was the second edition of the WAFF U-23 Championship, an under-23 international tournament for member nations of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). It took place in Saudi Arabia from 4 to 12 October 2021, featuring 11 teams. ^[3] Only players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate. Iran were the defending champions; however, they couldn't defend the title after they joined CAFA.

Jordan won their first tournament, beating hosts Saudi Arabia 3–1 in the final. ^[4]

Teams

Participants

A total of eleven teams participated in the competition. All WAFF members, other than Qatar, agreed to take part in the tournament. ^[5]

Team	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Bahrain	2nd	2015	Group stage
Iraq	1st	Debut	–
Jordan	2nd	2015	Group stage
Kuwait	1st	Debut	–
Lebanon	1st	Debut	–
Oman	2nd	2015	Group stage
Palestine	2nd	2015	Group stage
Saudi Arabia	2nd	2015	Group stage
Syria	2nd	2015	Runners-up
United Arab Emirates	2nd	2015	Group stage
Yemen	2nd	2015	Semi-finals

Draw

The eleven teams were drawn into three groups on 12 September 2021: Group A and B with four teams and Group C with three. ^{[6] [7]} The three group winners, alongside the best group runner-up, directly advanced to the knock-out stage.

Squads

Main article: 2021 WAFF U-23 Championship squads

Each team had to register a squad of up to 23 players, three of whom goalkeepers.

Venues

Khobar	Khobar Dammam	Dammam
Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium		Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium
Capacity: 15,000		Capacity: 26,000

Group stage

The three group winners and the best group runner-up advanced to the semi-finals.

All times are local, AST (UTC+3). ^{[8] [9]}

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6	Knockout stage
2	Yemen	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
3	Oman	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
4	Kuwait	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2

Source: kooora
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)

17:45

Jordan	0–1	Oman
	Report	Al Naabi 42'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Yahya Al Mulla (United Arab Emirates)

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)

20:45

Yemen	1–1	Kuwait
Al-Dahi 52'	Report	Al-Rashidi 42'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Shukri Al-Hanfoush (Saudi Arabia)

---

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

15:30

Oman	0–1	Yemen
	Report	Al-Gahwashi 28'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Mohammad Qanah (Syria)

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

18:30

Kuwait	1–2	Jordan
Al-Rashidi 8'	Report	Abu Taha 58' Aburiziq 88'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Mohammad Issa (Lebanon)

---

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)

17:45

Jordan	2–1	Yemen
Awad 35' (pen.) Aburiziq 87'	Report	Al-Dahi 40'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Sami Al-Jires (Saudi Arabia)

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)

20:45

Kuwait	1–1	Oman
Al-Salamah 90+7'	Report	Al Balushi 53'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Muath Al Oufi (Palestine)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7	Knockout stage
2	Palestine	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6
3	United Arab Emirates	3	1	0	2	3	3	0	3
4	Lebanon	3	0	1	2	4	9	−5	1

Source: kooora
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)

15:30

Palestine	0–1	Iraq
	Report	Abdulkareem 81'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Mokhtar Al-Arami (Yemen)

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)

18:30

United Arab Emirates	3–0	Lebanon
Obaid 32' Abdulrahman 34' Abdulla 78'	Report

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Sultan Al-Harbi (Saudi Arabia)

---

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

20:45

Lebanon	2–4	Palestine
Nasser 28' Bader 62'	Report	Direya 6', 12', 71' Al-Nabrisi 47'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Mohammad Deham (Bahrain)

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

21:30

Iraq	2–0	United Arab Emirates
Zamel 41' Abdulameer 90+2'	Report

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Khaled Al-Teris (Saudi Arabia)

---

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)

15:30

Palestine	1–0	United Arab Emirates
Mousa 16'	Report

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Faisal Al-Blwi (Saudi Arabia)

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)

21:30

Lebanon	2–2	Iraq
Nasser 33', 45'	Report	Iqbal 15' Sartip 55'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Shukri Al-Hanfoush (Saudi Arabia)

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia (H)	2	2	0	0	5	0	+5	6	Knockout stage
2	Syria	2	1	0	1	4	3	+1	3
3	Bahrain	2	0	0	2	1	7	−6	0

Source: kooora
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

4 October 2021 (2021-10-04)

21:30

Bahrain	1–4	Syria
Al Hayki 67'	Report	Mohammad 7' Al Khassi 29' Al Hallak 79' Akil 90+3'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Mohammed Salman (Iraq)

---

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

17:45

Syria	0–2	Saudi Arabia
	Report	Al-Hamdan 11' (pen.) Radif 90+2' (pen.)

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Ahmad Al-Ali (Kuwait)

---

8 October 2021 (2021-10-08)

18:30

Saudi Arabia	3–0	Bahrain
Al-Yami 48' Radif 54' Maran 73'	Report

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Yahya Al Mulla (United Arab Emirates)

Ranking of second-placed teams

The best runner-up team from the three groups advanced to the semi-finals along with the three group winners. Group C contained only three teams compared to four teams in the other two groups. Therefore, the results against the fourth-placed team were not counted when determining the ranking of the runner-up teams.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	C	Syria	2	1	0	1	4	3	+1	3	Knockout stage
2	A	Yemen	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
3	B	Palestine	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3

Source: kooora
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Fair play points; 5) Drawing of lots.

Knockout stage

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	10 October – Khobar
	Jordan	5
					12 October – Dammam
	Syria	2
					Jordan	3
	10 October – Dammam
					Saudi Arabia	1
	Iraq	0
	Saudi Arabia	1

Semi-finals

10 October 2021 (2021-10-10)

17:45

Jordan	5–2	Syria
Siahin 6' Al-Naimat 19' Al-Hourani 44' Aburiziq 81' Sadeh 90+4' (pen.)	Report	Rihanieh 61' Bashmani 86'

Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium, Khobar

Referee: Khaled Al-Teris (Saudi Arabia)

---

10 October 2021 (2021-10-10)

20:00

Iraq	0–1	Saudi Arabia
	Report	Al-Ghannam 49'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Mohammad Issa (Lebanon)

Final

12 October 2021 (2021-10-12)

17:30

Jordan	3–1	Saudi Arabia
Al-Naimat 29' Abu Al-Jazar 76' Aburiziq 90+4'	Report	Al-Ghannam 20'

Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Dammam

Referee: Ahmad Al-Ali (Kuwait)

Champion

2021 WAFF U-23 Championship champion
Jordan First title

Statistics

Goalscorers

There have been 51 goals scored in 18 matches, for an average of 2.83 goals per match.

4 goals

• Mohammad Aburiziq

3 goals

• Mohammad Nasser
• Mohammed Direya

2 goals

• Yazan Al-Naimat
• Eid Al-Rashidi
• Khalid Al-Ghannam
• Abdullah Radif
• Omar Al-Dahi

1 goal

• Said Al Hayki
• Hassan Abdul Karim
• Zidane Iqbal
• Muntadher Mohammed
• Ahmed Sartip
• Sadeq Zamel
• Yousef Abu Al-Jazar
• Mohannad Abu Taha
• Hadi Al-Hourani
• Abdullah Awad
• Ibrahim Sadeh
• Khaled Siahin
• Bandar Al-Salamah
• Khalil Bader
• Abdullah Al Balushi
• Issa Al Naabi
• Khaled Al-Nabrisi
• Bader Mousa
• Abdullah Al-Hamdan
• Hamad Al-Yami
• Mohammed Maran
• Amin Akil
• Mohammad Al Hallak
• Ahmad Al Khassi
• Ali Bashmani
• Yosief Mohammad
• Mohamad Rihanieh
• Ahmed Abdulla
• Abdulla Abdulrahman
• Saeed Obaid
• Nasser Al-Gahwashi

Awards

Player of the Tournament

• Yazan Al-Naimat

Golden Boot

• Mohammad Aburiziq

Golden Glove

• Nawaf Al-Aqidi

References

1. "عضو مجلس ادارة اتحاد غرب اسيا لكرة القدم علي المطيري سلّم لاعب المنتخب الاردني يزن النعيمات جائزة أفضل لاعب في البطولة".
2. "عضو مجلس إدارة الاتحاد السعودي لكرة القدم الدكتور خالد المقرن سلّم جائزة أفضل حارس في البطولة للاعب المنتخب السعودي نواف العقيدي".
3. Alkhateeb, Ayman (28 July 2021). "اتحاد غرب آسيا ينظم عدد من البطولات المهمة". جريدة الغد.
4. "Jordan beats Saudi Arabia in WAFF U-23 final". Jordan Times. 12 October 2021.
5. "الأولمبي يعتذر عن غرب آسيا".
6. ""الناشئين» و"الأولمبي" يترقبان قرعة «غرب آسيا"".
7. "قرعة "غرب آسيا" تضع الأولمبي في مجموعة المستضيف.. والناشئين في مجموعة الأدرن والكويت".
8. "بالصور: جدول بطولة غرب آسيا تحت 23 عامًا". 29 September 2021.
9. "إعلان جدول مباريات بطولة اتحاد غرب آسيا تحت ٢٣ عاماً". Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2021.