Draw and grouping ceremony for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers
Ranked 7th out of 16 in the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, Vietnam U23 is in the top seed group. At the finals held in Uzbekistan last year, Vietnam U23 drew with Thailand U23 (2-2), Korea U23 (1-1) and beat Malaysia U23 (2-0), thereby finishing the group stage in second place and qualifying for the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Vietnam U23 lost to Saudi Arabia U23 with a score of 0-2, the team that later won the championship.
U23 Vietnam aims to pass the qualifying round.
The 43 teams will be divided into 11 groups (10 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams), playing a round-robin at a centralized location. The 11 winners and 4 best runners-up, along with host Qatar, will participate in the final round in May next year. The AFC has also determined the 11 countries hosting the qualifying round, including Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
According to the regulations, the seeding is based on the achievements of the 2022 AFC U23 Championship. Teams that did not participate in the 2022 Finals, along with host Qatar, are placed in Group 4. Ranked 7th out of 16 participating teams, U23 Vietnam is in Group 1. This gives Philippe Troussier's team a good chance of qualifying for the Finals, when they only face opponents from Group 2 and above (except for the teams hosting the group).
Indonesia and Thailand are the hosts, so U23 Vietnam can only meet other opponents in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore... Although they may fall into an easy group, U23 Vietnam can also fall into a difficult group with strong opponents such as Iran (group 2), Lebanon (group 3), North Korea (group 4).
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