The 2026 AFC U17 Championship quarter-finals witnessed an interesting detail when U17 Vietnam, U17 Japan, U17 Korea and U17 China all participated, creating a scenario similar to the AFC U23 Championship held at the beginning of the year.
Asian football fans often call this group the "four great peers". However, on social networks, many fans jokingly call them "four great peers", to emphasize the similarities in the living culture of these countries.
At the previous AFC U23 Championship, U23 Vietnam, U23 Japan, U23 Korea and China all passed the group stage and advanced to the quarterfinals. Their opponents at that time were West Asian or Oceania teams such as U23 UAE, U23 Uzbekistan, U23 Jordan and U23 Australia.
In the end, Vietnam, Japan, China and South Korea all qualified for the semi-finals.
After about 4 months, a similar scenario continues to appear in the U17 Asian arena. U17 Japan will face U17 Tajikistan, U17 South Korea will face U17 Uzbekistan, U17 China will face U17 Saudi Arabia and U17 Vietnam will compete with U17 Australia.
In these matches, U17 Japan is rated much higher than U17 Tajikistan thanks to their all-win record in the group stage. U17 South Korea, although not playing stably, still has many advantages against U17 Uzbekistan.
In the remaining match, U17 Vietnam is expected to continue to create a surprise against U17 Australia. For many years, Vietnamese youth football has often had positive results against this opponent at the U17 level in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, U17 China is rated lower than host U17 Saudi Arabia. However, the billion-people country is still expected to create surprises like the way they once surpassed many predictions at the AFC U23 Championship before.
