Vietnam team has a huge advantage in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers

The Vietnamese team played well during the FIFA Days in June 2023 with two wins against Hong Kong (China) and Syria.

The Vietnam team is in the second seed group in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

With that achievement, the "Golden Star Warriors" still maintained the 95th position on the FIFA rankings and rose to 15th in Asia.

With this position, the Vietnamese team has been placed in the second seed group by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

This helps coach Troussier and his team avoid strong opponents in the same seed group: Uzbekistan, China, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan and India.

Previously, in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Vietnamese team was also placed in group 2 and then entered the final qualifying round.

However, in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, the red team will face one of the teams in group 1: Japan, Iran, Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, UAE and Oman.

Meanwhile, according to the AFC announcement, group 3 seeds include Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Lebanon, Tajikistan, North Korea, Kuwait, Turkmenistan and Hong Kong.

Notably, the Indonesian team has to play the first qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup with 6 other teams in Southeast Asia including Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor and Brunei.

Seeding groups in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

From the 2026 World Cup, Asia will have up to 8 places in the final round and 1 place in the intercontinental play-off.

This means that the opportunity to attend the World Cup for teams like Vietnam is also more open.

As planned, the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup will begin from November 16, 2023 to June 11, 2024 with the participation of 36 teams.

The teams in this round are divided equally into 9 groups, playing a double round-robin (home and away). The top two teams in each group will advance to the third qualifying round.

Source: http://www.baogiaothong.vn/doi-tuyen-viet-nam-co-loi-the-cuc-lon-tai-vong-loai-world-cup-2026-d596516.html