To qualify for the 2025 AFC U17 Championship finals, the Vietnam U17 team must overcome a qualifying round with three matches against Kyrgyzstan U17, Myanmar U17, and Yemen U17. None of Vietnam's three opponents are teams with a tradition of regularly participating in continental tournaments.
How strong are Vietnam U17's opponents?
Among Vietnam's U17 opponents in the 2025 AFC U17 Asian Cup qualifiers, only Yemen's U17 team participated in the 2023 finals. The players born between 2006 and 2008 performed well, reaching the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Iran's U17 team on penalties. The current Yemen U17 squad includes three players who participated in that tournament: Adel Qasem, Abdulrahman Al-Khadher, and Wadhah Al-Radfani.
Yemeni football has not been among the strongest teams in Asian competitions in recent years. The golden age of Yemeni youth football was from 2002 to 2004, when they finished as runners-up in the AFC U17 Championship and qualified for the U17 World Cup. From 2016 to the present, Yemen has consistently had representatives in the AFC U17 Championship but has never advanced beyond the group stage.
However, in this qualifying round, the Yemen U17 team is still considered stronger than the Vietnam U17 team. Their achievement of reaching the quarterfinals of the 2023 tournament places the West Asian team in the top seed group. The Yemen U17 team is the strongest opponent for the Vietnam U17 team in Group I.
The Yemen U17 team is the most formidable opponent awaiting the Vietnam U17 team.
Vietnam U17's remaining two opponents in Group I are Kyrgyzstan U17 and Myanmar U17. Neither team is highly regarded in continental tournaments and rarely makes it past the qualifying rounds. To advance, Vietnam U17 must defeat both of these opponents.
The Kyrgyzstan U17 team has only qualified for the Asian Championship once in its history, in 2016. Since 1998, the Kyrgyzstan U17 team has qualified 11 times, failing to advance 10 times.
The Myanmar U17 team is slightly better. They participated in the finals in 2000, 2002, and 2006, but haven't qualified since 2010. The last time spectators saw the Myanmar U17 team in the Asian Championship finals was 18 years ago.
In the group stage of the 2024 Southeast Asian U16 Championship, the Vietnam U17 team (then the U16 team) defeated Myanmar U16 with a score of 5-1. Of the four players who scored for Vietnam U16 in that match, three are still participating in this qualifying round: Nguyen Viet Long, Nguyen Thai Hoa, and Nguyen Thai Hieu.
Conditions for Vietnam U17 to qualify
Match schedule for the Vietnam U17 team.
The Vietnam U17 team is in Group I of the 2025 AFC U17 Asian Cup qualifiers, taking place at Viet Tri Stadium ( Phu Tho province ) starting on October 23rd. Vietnam U17 will play against Kyrgyzstan U17 (October 23rd), Myanmar U17 (October 25th), and Yemen U17 (October 27th). Vietnam U17 needs to achieve good results against Myanmar U17 and Kyrgyzstan U17 before facing Yemen U17 in the final match.
According to the format of the 2025 AFC U17 Championship qualifiers, the teams are divided into 10 groups, including 7 groups of 4 teams and 3 groups of 5 teams. Lebanon's withdrawal leaves Group H with only 3 teams. Only the group winners and the 5 best-performing second-placed teams qualify for the finals, which will be held in Saudi Arabia next year.
Therefore, the Vietnam U17 team is only guaranteed a spot in the finals if they finish first in their group. If they finish second, coach Cristiano Roland's team will need to compare their results with other second-placed teams. Since there are three teams in each group, the Vietnam U17 team will have to subtract the result of their match against the last-placed team.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/soi-suc-manh-3-doi-thu-cua-u17-viet-nam-tai-vong-loai-u17-chau-a-2025-ar903120.html
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