Who can Malaysia draw in the AFC U23 Championship
Datuk Ong Kim Swee and his Malaysia Under-23 team will know of their AFC Under-23 Championship grouping today.
The draw is expected to be held in Changzhou, China today where 16 teams from all over Asia will know who their group stage opponents will be.
Malaysia are in Pot 4, together with fellow Southeast Asian (SEA) country, Vietnam. While another team from SEA in Thailand are in Pot 3.
The full pot:
Pot 1 | |||
China | Qatar | Uzbekistan | Vietnam |
Japan | Jordan | Syria | Oman |
South Korea | North Korea | Saudi Arabia | Palestine |
Iraq | Australia | Thailand | Malaysia |
Malaysia made it through to the finals after finishing top of their group ahead of Thailand, Indonesia and Mongolia in the qualifying round.
The finals will be played in various locations in China starting January 2018.
Japan are the current champions from the 2016 edition while this will be Malaysia's first appearance in the finals.
The toughest draw that Malaysia could get is probably Japan, Australia and Syria. A more favourable draw could see Malaysia in the same group at Iraq, Jordan and Thailand.
Finishing in any of the top two positions in the group will guarantee a quarterfinal spot.