U23 Vietnam is in an easy group, has a chance to dream of a miracle

According to the draw results of the U23 Asian Cup, U23 Vietnam will be in Group D with Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Malaysia. This is a much "lighter" group than the other teams.

Malaysia and Kuwait are not among the top teams in Asia. Their national teams are also ranked below Vietnam in the FIFA rankings. Only Uzbekistan is the most formidable challenge for Coach Troussier and his team.

U23 Việt Nam nằm ở bảng đấu dễ thở, có cơ hội mơ về kỳ tích - 1 — Draw results for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship (Photo: AFC).

For many years, Uzbekistan football has always been very strong in the youth level. U23 Vietnam once had a sad memory when losing to this opponent in the final match of U23 Asia 2018.

Two Southeast Asian teams, Indonesia and Thailand, are in a relatively difficult group. Indonesia U23 is in Group A with Qatar, Australia and Jordan, while Thailand is in Group C with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Tajikistan.

The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will be the basis for selecting Asian representatives to participate in the 2024 Olympics. Of which, Asia will have 3 direct slots to this tournament. The 4th ranked team in the AFC U23 Championship will play a play-off with the representative of Africa.

The 16 strongest U23 teams in Asia will compete for the championship at the 6th tournament, taking place from April 15 to May 3, 2024, held in Doha, Qatar.

The tournament is even more exciting and thrilling, as the top 3 teams of the 2024 U23 Asia will directly qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, while the fourth-placed team will participate in the Play-off match with an opponent from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Previously, the U23 Asian Cup finals had determined 16 participating teams. Qatar was the host so it automatically won a spot. The 15 teams that passed the qualifying round included Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Japan, Australia, Iraq, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Jordan, UAE, Kuwait, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Indonesia and China.

Of these, eight teams, including Australia, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan, have never been absent from the finals, while Indonesia will be participating in the tournament for the first time.

As the host country, Qatar will be placed in the number one seed pot, along with Saudi Arabia (the defending champion), Uzbekistan and Japan. Having qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, U23 Vietnam is in group 2. Also participating in this year's tournament, U23 Vietnam are 4 other representatives of the Southeast Asian Football Federation: Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to the seeding method above, Thailand is in group 3 while Malaysia and Indonesia are in group 4. Thus, U23 Vietnam can completely face 2 opponents in the same region right in the group stage including Thailand and Indonesia or Malaysia.

The 16 teams will be divided into four equal groups to compete in a round-robin format and the top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals.

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