Vietnam team will compete with China, Uzbekistan, South Korea

Monday, September 25, 2023 17:09 (GMT+7)

(CPV) - In preparation for the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, the Vietnamese team has officially set the date for friendly matches with teams in October, including China, Uzbekistan and South Korea.

In October, coach Philippe Troussier and his team will play away against a strong opponent. According to VFF, both opponents are ranked above Vietnam on the FIFA rankings, including host China (ranked 80th in the world ) and Uzbekistan (ranked 75th in the world).

According to the match schedule sent to VFF by the Chinese Football Association (CFA), the Vietnamese team will meet China in the first match on October 10 and meet Uzbekistan on October 13. The match times and venues will be updated by CFA later.

In the history of national team confrontations since 1997, the Chinese team has won 7 out of 8 matches against the Vietnamese team. Their only loss was also the most recent match between the two teams, which was the match at My Dinh Stadium on February 1, 2022 in the final qualifying round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Asia.

As for Uzbekistan, the Vietnamese team had two matches in the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers in November 2013. In the first leg, the Vietnamese team lost 1-3 when visiting Uzbekistan and lost 0-3 when returning home in the second leg, thereby losing their chance to compete for a ticket to the final round.

Even at the youth team level from U-19 to U-23, Vietnam has never won against a representative from Central Asia with superior skills. In 2018, Park Hang-seo and his team lost to U-23 Uzbekistan in the final match of the U-23 Asian Cup in Changzhou.

Statistics clearly show that China and Uzbekistan are of a higher level than the Vietnamese team. Therefore, competing with two high-class teams during the FIFA Days in October 2023 will be a quality experience for Coach Troussier and his team before entering the journey to participate in the second qualifying round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Asia, scheduled to start in November 2023.

According to the plan, after finishing two friendly matches against host China and Uzbekistan in China, the Vietnamese players will continue to Korea on October 14 to train and play a friendly match with the Korean team. The friendly match will take place on October 17 at Suwon Stadium, which hosted the 2002 World Cup./.

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