Vietnam U23 faces an easy opponent.

Procedures for the draw and group allocation of the 2024 AFC U23 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Finishing 7th out of 16 teams in the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, Vietnam U23 was placed in Group 1 of the seeded teams. At the tournament held in Uzbekistan last year, Vietnam U23 drew with Thailand U23 (2-2), drew with South Korea U23 (1-1), and won against Malaysia U23 (2-0), thus finishing second in the group stage and advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Vietnam U23 lost to Saudi Arabia U23 0-2, who later went on to win the championship.

The Vietnam U23 team aims to qualify for the next round.

43 teams will be divided into 11 groups (10 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams), playing a single round-robin format at a centralized location. The 11 group winners and the 4 best second-placed teams, along with host nation Qatar, will advance to the finals in May next year. The AFC has also identified 11 host countries for the qualifying rounds: Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

According to the regulations, the seeding is based on the performance in the 2022 AFC U23 Asian Championship. Teams that did not participate in the 2022 tournament, along with host nation Qatar, are placed in Group 4. Finishing 7th out of 16 participating teams, Vietnam U23 is in Seed Group 1. This gives Philippe Troussier's team a strong chance of qualifying for the finals, as they will only face opponents from Group 2 onwards (excluding the host teams of the group stage).

With Indonesia and Thailand hosting the tournament, the Vietnam U23 team can only face other Southeast Asian opponents such as Malaysia, Cambodia, and Singapore. While they might be drawn into an easy group, the Vietnam U23 team could also be placed in a difficult group with strong opponents like Iran (Group 2), Lebanon (Group 3), and North Korea (Group 4).

Source: https://vtc.vn/truc-tiep-boc-tham-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2024-xac-dinh-doi-thu-cua-u22-viet-nam-ar785176.html