The Turkmenistan national football team secured their second victory at the 2026 AFC Asian Cup U17 qualifying tournament in Chonburi, Thailand, defeating their counterparts from Thailand 3-2.

For both teams, this was already the third match in Group «F», in which five teams are fighting for the only ticket to the final part of the tournament.

The opponents approached the head-to-head match in unequal positions. Turkmenistan, after a 0-1 defeat to Kuwait and a resounding 6-0 victory over the Maldives, had 3 points. The Thais, who crushed Mongolia 4-0 and the Maldives 7-1, had 6 points. Therefore, the upcoming match against the tournament hosts was of great importance to the team of Ahmet Allaberdiyev.

The Turkmen footballers were determined to get going and were already leading 2-0 by the 24^th minute. Suleymannazar Govshudov scored the first goal in the 14^th minute, and Hudaynazar Meredov doubled the lead 10 minutes later.

In the 61^st minute, after a shot by H. Meredov, Thai player Pongkoon deflected the ball into his own net, and it seemed the Turkmen team would secure an easy victory. But it was not to be. In the 64^th minute, Chaiwarangkoon Pichai opened the scoring. Eight minutes later, Sutthiphapra Pakorn reduced the deficit to 2-3.

In the remaining time, the hosts made a great effort to save the game, but they were unable to avoid defeat.

In the other match of the day, Kuwait U17, who had won 5-0 against Mongolia U17 in the previous round, scored five unanswered goals against Maldives U17. The goals of winners were scored by Al-Mutairi (10^th minute), Al-Atiqi (34^th and 45+5), Al-Hajji (83^rd), and Al-Dawud (86^th).

After these games, Kuwait leads Group «F» with 9 points. Turkmenistan and Thailand each have 6 points. Mongolia has 3 points. The Maldives are at the bottom of the table, with no points yet.

The fate of the only ticket to the final stage of the 2026 Asian Cup in this group will be decided in the last round, in which Mongolia will play Turkmenistan, Thailand will play Kuwait.

As a reminder, 38 teams, divided into seven groups, are participating in the 2026 Asian Youth Cup qualification. Qualifying matches are held in all groups in a centralised one-round format.

The group winners will advance to the final stage of the tournament, which will take place from 7^th to 24^th of May, 2026, in Saudi Arabia. In the final stage of the competition, they will join nine AFC representatives – Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Korea, DPRK, Japan, Tajikistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia – who have automatically qualified for the 2025 FIFA U17 World Cup in Qatar.