After 16 years without participation, Iraq qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics after winning the 2004 Olympic Asian Qualifiers under head coach Adnan Hamad and were scheduled to play against Costa Rica, Morocco and Portugal in the group stages.

[4] The second game was played against the hosts and pre-tournament favourites, Brazil, which also ended up as a 0–0 draw, which was hailed as a great result for Iraq.

[6] This result, coupled with Denmark's defeat to Brazil, saw Iraq get eliminated at the group stage.

The final was against local rivals Saudi Arabia, and Mohannad Abdul-Raheem scored the only goal to win the tournament for Iraq.

Iraq advanced from the group stage, beating Yemen 2–0, Uzbekistan 3–2, and a 1–1 tie with South Korea.

[9] Iraq qualified for the 3rd tournament by topping the group in the qualification stage in Saudi Arabia in July 2017.

However, thing didn't go as planned, which an unexpected 3–3 draw after extra time meant that the result would be settled via a penalty shoot-out, in which Vietnam emerged victorious with the score of 5–3, thus eliminating Iraq from the tournament in the shock of its supporters.

Iraq pulled back the equaliser through Wakaa Ramadan to draw with Jordan 1-1 in the opening matchday, before drawing again to a 10-man Australia side through a Hasan Abdulkareem volley cancelling out a scorpion kick goal scored by Alou Kuol.

Iraq defeated Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia, securing their place as group winners.

Iraq faced Vietnam in the quarterfinals, and in a fiercely contested match, booking their ticket to the semifinals.

[13] On the individual front, Ali Jasim finished as the top scorer of the tournament with four goals and two assists.

Caretaker manager The following table shows Iraq under-23 team's all-time international record.