U23 Vietnam meets old opponent in U23 Asia qualifiers

(PLVN) - The Vietnam U23 team will meet Yemen and Singapore again in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers.

On the afternoon of May 29, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted the draw for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers. As a result, the Vietnam U23 team is in Group C with Yemen, Singapore and Bangladesh.

These are also quite familiar opponents for U23 Vietnam, in which Yemen and Singapore were present in the group of U23 Vietnam in the 2024 U23 Asian Qualifiers, when the team won the group with 7 points after beating Guam 6-0, surpassing Yemen with a score of 1-0 and drawing Singapore 2-2.

In 2025, besides the 2026 U23 Asian Qualifiers, the Vietnam U23 team will also participate in two other important tournaments: the Southeast Asian U23 Championship and the 33rd SEA Games.

The 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers will feature 44 teams, divided into 11 groups, playing a round-robin in each group to select the 11 group winners and 4 second-placed teams with the best results in each group to compete in the Final Round. The qualifying matches will take place from September 1 to September 9, 2025 in the host countries. The Final Round will be held in January 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

According to the AFC rankings, the Vietnam U23 team is currently ranked 5th in Asia, behind only Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq and South Korea. This is a worthy result for the efforts and outstanding achievements of Vietnamese youth football in recent years, with 1 runner-up position (2018) and 2 consecutive quarter-finals (2022, 2024) in the last 5 Asian U23 tournaments.

The Vietnam U23 team is gathering alongside the national team during the FIFA Days in June 2025. The list of players this time includes 26 excellent young players from many domestic clubs, most of whom have accompanied the team in previous gatherings and have been tested through many international matches and tournaments.

Tuan Ngoc

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/u23-viet-nam-gap-lai-doi-thu-cu-tai-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-post550167.html