U23 Vietnam meets easy opponent

Draw and group stage of 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 qualify.

The 43 teams will be divided into 11 groups (10 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams), playing a single round-robin at a centralized location. The 11 first-placed teams and the 4 best second-placed teams, along with host Qatar, will compete in the final round in May next year. The AFC has also determined 11 countries to host 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 meet 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).

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