Big ambitions in Asia's top arena

"Hanoi FC does not have too many expectations because this is our first time participating in the AFC Champions League. However, we are trying to have a modest goal of passing the group stage," Hanoi FC Chairman Do Vinh Quang announced. The capital team is the representative of Vietnamese football competing in the highest level of Asian club competition in the 2023/2024 season.

Participating in the AFC Champions League group stage for the first time, Hanoi FC was drawn into a group with Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan) - the 2022 champions and Pohang Steelers (Korea) - the 2021 runners-up. Only the group leader is guaranteed to advance. To achieve that "modest goal", Hanoi FC must conquer a journey with many great challenges and an ambitious vision.

Hanoi FC represents Vietnamese football in the 2023/2024 AFC Champions League. (Photo: VPF)

Great Ambition

Vietnamese football has never had a representative pass the group stage of the AFC Champions League. Even becoming a familiar name in this arena is something that no team in the V-League has done before. Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Becamex Binh Duong have only participated in the tournament 3 times at most.

The best result was 7 points (2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses) and the second place of HAGL 19 years ago. In 2021, when returning to the Asian arena, the mountain town team earned 5 points. In 2022, Viettel Club won 2 matches in the Champions League group stage. Both teams only ranked third and were far behind the opponents above.

Vietnamese football representatives are generally not competitive enough to advance deep into the highest level of continental competition. From next season, the AFC Champions League will be renamed the AFC Champions League Elite with a new format, significantly narrowing the participation opportunities of V-League clubs.

Hanoi FC Chairman Do Vinh Quang announced the goal of passing the Champions League group stage. (Photo: Hanoi FC)

Even Hanoi FC’s performance in the AFC Champions League this season will determine Vietnam’s chances of participating in the most prestigious tournament in Asia in the coming years. The reason is that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) allocates AFC Champions League Elite slots based on the rankings of national championships. The East Asian region has 6 tournaments with slots and the V-League is currently ranked seventh. The only way to increase the ranking is for Vietnamese clubs to have good results in the Asian arena.

In the context that the capital team has been trying to promote the slogan "Pride of Hanoi, Glory of Vietnam" in recent years, they have more motivation to do their best in this AFC Champions League. Perhaps the capital team's fans, after celebrating enough domestic titles, also want their team to aim for success at a higher level.

Ready for high level challenges

Entering the big playground with high ambitions, Hanoi FC needs to prepare accordingly. Compared to opponents at the top level of the continent, the representative of Vietnamese football is still inferior in many aspects, from force to experience competing in the AFC Champions League arena.

Hanoi FC are no strangers to international competition. They reached the semi-finals (inter-zone final) of the AFC Cup in 2019 and have participated in the AFC Champions League qualifiers several times. However, this challenge is of a much higher level of difficulty.

Four years ago, the capital team made fans go from excitement to regret when they lost right before the group stage. Hanoi FC - at that time in its golden age in both strength and playing style under coach Chu Dinh Nghiem - played a fair match with Shandong Luneng.

Hanoi FC uses all 6 foreign player slots in AFC Champions League 2023/2024.

However, there were two factors that caused the V-League representative to lose at the decisive moment. They lost to the Chinese team in terms of experience in competing at the highest level, and were unable to maintain their concentration and alertness to take advantage of opportunities to protect their achievements. Second, the opponent had a much better squad with a different factor named Graziano Pelle - a former Italian player who once "made waves" in the Premier League.

Hanoi FC can learn many lessons from that regrettable defeat. Coach Bozidar Bandovic - who used to lead Buriram United - has a lot of experience in the AFC Champions League. The capital team also understands that they need quality foreign players to play in this high-level competition and have thorough preparations as soon as the 2023 V-League season ends.

The current V-League runner-up will use all the foreign players allowed by the tournament's regulations (6 foreign players, including 1 Asian national). That means Hanoi FC recruited 3 foreign players just to play in the AFC Champions League (because clubs are only allowed to register 3 foreign players in the V-League).

That is not a small investment. Among the representatives of Vietnamese football participating in the Asian arena, only the capital team has done so. This shows how great the determination of Hanoi FC is.

Xuan Phuong

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