The Young Socceroos have been drawn in Group D for the AFC Under-19 Championship to be held in Bahrain later this year.

The official draw was held in Manama on Sunday with Paul Okon’s side pitted alongside Uzbekistan, China PR and Tajikistan.

Australia booked their spot at the tournament as one of the best second placed teams in qualifying after finishing second in their group behind Japan in October 2015.

The Young Socceroos will be looking to improve on their last appearance after failing to make it out of the group stage in 2014, finishing behind Uzbekistan and UAE.

The 16-team tournament sees teams split into groups of four with the top two teams in each progressing to the quarter finals.

The top four ranked teams (semi-finalists) will book their spot at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Korea Republic in 2017.

Should Korea Republic qualify for the semi-finals, three play-off matches will be played among the losing quarter-finalists to determine the fifth-placed team to qualify for Korea Republic 2017.



AFC U-19 Championship Groups

Group A: Bahrain, Thailand, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia

Group B: DPR Korea, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Vietnam

Group C: Qatar, Japan, Yemen, IR Iran

Group A: Uzbekistan, China PR, Australia, Tajikistan



Young Socceroos AFC U-19 Championship Draw

15 October - China PR v Young Socceroos (Bahrain National Stadium)

18 October – Young Socceroos v Uzbekistan (Khalifa Sport City Stadium)

21 October – Young Socceroos v Tajikistan (Bahrain National Stadium)