The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) U16 football championship which was scheduled to be held from September 16 to October 3 in Bahrain is likely to be postponed to a November 25 due to the Coronavirus crisis, Goal has learnt.
India qualified for the 2020 AFC U-16 Championship finals in September 2019 as the table-toppers from Group B. With two wins and a draw, India managed to pick up seven points from three matches to finish above Bahrain, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the qualifiers held in Uzbekistan.
Before going into the AFC U-16 qualifiers, the colts also enjoyed a 11-match winning streak. They built on their performance and finished with an unbeaten record in the qualifiers and boasted a goal difference of +10.
This was for the ninth time that India managed to qualify for the finals, having done it earlier in 1990, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2018 editions of the competition.
11 group winners and the four best second-placed teams will progress to the final round. Bahrain has attained automatic qualification on the virtue of being the host nation.
The top four teams of the AFC U-16 Championship finals qualify for the U-17 World Cup as representatives of the AFC.
India were very close to sealing a berth in the 2019 U-17 World Cup last time out after they managed to progress from the group stages to the knockout rounds in 2018. But Bibiano Fernandes' boys conceded a late goal against South Korea in the quarterfinals which ultimately cost them a spot in the World Cup.
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