Before the decisive match, U17 China was assessed as having many disadvantages when losing both of the first two matches against U17 Indonesia and U17 Japan. The East Asian representative suffered defeats 0-1 and 1-2 respectively, thereby standing at the bottom of the group with no points.
However, a surprise happened in the last match taking place in the early morning of May 13 (Vietnam time). U17 China played effectively to win 2-0 against U17 Qatar thanks to goals from He Sifan and Zhang Bolin.
This result makes the competition for a ticket to the next round unpredictable. In the match at the same time, U17 Indonesia only needed to get 1 point against U17 Japan to get a ticket to the quarter-finals, and at the same time win the right to participate in the U17 World Cup 2026.
The Southeast Asian representative made efforts to chase and narrow the score to 1-2 in the 70th minute. However, pushing up the squad to find an equalizer caused U17 Indonesia to continue conceding a goal just one minute later.
In the end, U17 Indonesia lost to U17 Japan with a score of 1-3. This result caused the island nation team to drop to the bottom of Group B with 3 points.
According to the regulations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), when teams have equal points, the head-to-head record will be considered first. In Group B, U17 Indonesia, U17 China and U17 Qatar all have 3 points, so the head-to-head record between the three teams is used for ranking.
U17 China is the team that qualified for the next round thanks to having the best head-to-head record in the group, reaching +1 after a 2-0 victory over U17 Qatar and a 0-1 defeat to U17 Indonesia. Meanwhile, U17 Indonesia ranked last due to having a lower head-to-head record.
Passing the group stage also means that U17 China won a ticket to participate in the 2026 U17 World Cup. This is considered a surprising result when this team once faced the risk of being eliminated early after the first two matches.
On the Qatar U17 side, although they could not win a ticket to the quarter-finals, the West Asian team still participated in the 2026 U17 World Cup as the host of the tournament.
