Olyroos’ qualifiers revealed on the road to Rio

​The Olyroos have drawn Myanmar, Hong Kong and hosts Chinese Taipei in qualifiers for the AFC U-23 Championships in Qatar, which will serve as qualifiers for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The draw was made in Kuala Lumpur today.

The 16-nation biennial competition, which was launched as the AFC U-22 Championship last year, and subsequently renamed as the AFC U-23 Championship, will serve as the Olympics qualifiers in every alternate edition.

The top three teams from the 2016 edition will represent Asia at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.

Qatar, the hosts of the AFC U-23 Championship 2016 Finals, will not participate in the qualifying competition which is divided into two zones.

The West Zone for participating nations from the West and South Central regions; and the East Zone for East Asian and ASEAN nations.

There will be three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams in the West Zone (total five groups, 23 teams) while the East Zone will have five groups of four teams (total five groups, 20 teams).

Ten group winners and five best-second placed teams from all groups will qualify for the final competition (total 15 qualifying teams).

Iran, Bangladesh and Pakistan will be the hosts for the West Zone while the East Zone qualifying competition will take place in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei.

The Olyroos were recently in China for a four-nation tournament in preparation for these qualifiers.

​The Aussies ended their China tour on a high after beating Korea Republic 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from Perth Glory’s Jamie Maclaren in Wuhan.

This was the Olyroos’ third and final game of their China tour.

The Olyroos’ first game saw them draw 2-2 with Brazil. 

Olyroos  stun Brazil with late goal to draw 2-2

Hero of that game was Corey Gameiro who scored the first goal and won the penalty converted by Mustafa Amini. They then lost 3-1 to China PR. The Aussie goal scored by Dutch-based Travis Cooper.