2021 WAFF U-23 Championship

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.

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 →

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