Vietnam in the same group as Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Malaysia

On the afternoon of November 23 in Doha, Qatar, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) conducted a draw to divide the groups for 16 teams participating in the 2024 AFC U23 Championship Finals. As a result, the Vietnam U23 team is in Group D with Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Malaysia.

This is a group that is considered quite "easy" for the U23 Vietnam team, because except for Uzbekistan, which is considered to have superior strength, the two opponents Kuwait and Malaysia are both within the ability of the U23 Vietnam team to compete.

In the history of the tournament since its transformation from U22 to U23 Asia in 2016 until now, Uzbekistan and Vietnam have continuously participated in the Final Round, in which the 2018 Final Round in Changzhou (China) went down in Vietnamese football history when the U23 Vietnam team made a miracle with the runner-up position.

In the final match covered in white snow at that time, Quang Hai's free kick created a beautiful "rainbow" to equalize 1-1 for U23 Vietnam in the 41st minute, but in the end, the victory belonged to U23 Uzbekistan after scoring the final goal to make it 2-1 in the last minute of the second extra time. The runner-up position is also the best achievement of the U23 Vietnam team in this arena.

As for Kuwait and Malaysia, before winning tickets to Qatar, these two teams had only participated in the Final Round twice, with Malaysia's best achievement being reaching the Quarterfinals in the 2018 tournament, while Kuwait had never passed the group stage.

The Vietnam U23 team qualified for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship as the top team in Group C with 7 points in the qualifying round. Coach Philippe Troussier's team defeated Guam (6-0), Yemen (1-0) before drawing Singapore (2-2) in a match that was just a formality as they had already secured the top spot.

The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will take place from April 15 to May 3, 2024 in Qatar.

In addition to competing for rankings, this Final Round is also a tournament to determine Asian representatives to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Specifically, the top 3 teams of the Final Round will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The fourth-placed team (losing in the third-place match) will participate in a play-off match with the African Football Confederation representative to compete for a place in France to attend the Olympics.

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