Group stage complete, there's been a few surprises! Definitely worth keeping an eye on as this is what we're up against next year in Olympics qualifiers.

Vietnam still strong at youth level, finishing on top of Japan in their group with a win over the latter.

Malaysia also making it out of the group with a win over South Korea (who finished first), Indonesia coming back from their suspension topping their (admittedly weaker) group, and Myanmar getting a win over Iran, unlucky not to qualify with all teams in their group (also including North Korea and Saudi) all ending up on 4 points.

The rise of South East Asia?

The absolute best result of all though is Qatar coming dead last in their group with Bangladesh qualifying after beating them. Their home World Cup generation is coming through nicely lol.

China topping their group in straight sets with wins over Syria, UAE and East Timor.

Syria and Palestine the only two Arab countries to get a top two group finish (although Saudi, UAE and Bahrain join Hong Kong in getting a best four out of six third-place qualifiers, which is harsh on Myanmar as they got a better result than UAE and Bahrain, I think that rule needs a looking at).