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There is good news for the India Under-16 national team as they have qualified as one of the best five second-placed teams in the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualifiers.
Besides South Korea, the other nine groups were won by Australia, North Korea, Japan, Jordan, Iraq, Indonesia, Iran, Tajikistan and Yemen with hosts Malaysia qualifying automatically; while India, Oman, Thailand, Vietnam and Afghanistan have qualified as the five best second-placed teams.
India was placed in Group D alongside defending champions Iraq, hosts Nepal and Palestine. The talented India U-16 had opened with a promising 3-0 win against Palestine in Kathmandu. India then played out an unnecessary 2-2 draw against Nepal and finally earned an encouraging goalless draw against Iraq.
With these results India finished with five points from three matches in second position behind Iraq, who finished with seven points.
India had to wait a few days and then got the good news of making it to the final tournament next year in Malaysia, which would give this batch of India U-16 boys a chance to qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
