In the opening match of Group C of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, the Vietnam U23 team will host Bangladesh U23 at Viet Tri Stadium ( Phu Tho ) at 7:00 p.m. today, September 3.
Home advantage
The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will feature 44 teams. The teams will be drawn into 11 groups and compete in a round robin format to determine rankings. At the end of the qualifiers, the 11 group winners and the four best runners-up will join hosts Saudi Arabia in the finals.
Vietnam U23 team (left) determined to win the opening day of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers (Photo: VFF)
Coach Kim Sang-sik's team was lucky to be in Group C with mid-level opponents, including: U23 Bangladesh, U23 Yemen and U23 Singapore. In this group, the U23 Vietnam team is considered the strongest candidate partly because it has a higher position on the FIFA rankings. In addition, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team also have a big advantage because all matches of Group C are held in Phu Tho.
In the 3 qualifying matches, U23 Yemen (seed group 2) is considered an opponent that can cause difficulties in the race for the top spot with the host. U23 Bangladesh (seed group 4) and U23 Singapore (seed group 3) have not had outstanding achievements in the international arena recently so they are not highly rated.
Although being the first visiting team to come to Vietnam, having had plenty of time to practice and get used to the field and weather conditions, the core force of U23 Bangladesh has few quality players. Standing out in the squad of the team from South Asia participating in the qualifying round of this tournament is naturalized Cuban striker Mitchell - a midfielder born in 2005 with three bloodlines: English, Jamaican and Bangladeshi. Mitchell used to play for youth teams in England such as Birmingham and Sunderland.
To prepare for the group stage in Vietnam, Bangladesh had two friendly matches with U23 Bahrain and lost both.
Many experienced young players
In Group C, U23 Vietnam aims to win a ticket to the 2026 AFC U23 Championship as the group leader. Therefore, coach Kim Sang-sik built a team with the core of the players who won the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship.
The team list this term includes many young talents who have played for the national team and have experience playing in the V-League, including: goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien, central defender Pham Ly Duc, midfielder Khuat Van Khang, Nguyen Van Truong, Nguyen Thai Son and striker Nguyen Dinh Bac.
Coach Kim Sang-sik focuses on building a solid connection in the midfield, where there are versatile midfielders who can create breakthroughs when deploying the ball.
Meanwhile, the U23 Vietnam attack line includes veteran players in the domestic league, who are key players for their home teams. Standing out among the young strikers is striker Dinh Bac - a young talent who has proven his important role for the Hanoi Police Club and the Vietnam national team in recent times.
Dinh Bac was the player who scored the winning goal in Hanoi Police Club's 3-2 victory over Nam Dinh in the 2024-2025 National Super Cup match in August. The 21-year-old player was also named in the starting lineup of the police team in 2 of the first 3 matches of V-League 2025-2026.
The 1.8 m tall Nghe An striker plays in the center position but can also play well on the wing thanks to his ability to accelerate past people and shoot dangerously from a distance.
Commenting on the upcoming journey, Dinh Bac affirmed that the whole team always respects the opponents but is also determined to achieve good results to have a smooth start and bring joy to the fans.
"We really hope that fans will come to Viet Tri Stadium to cheer and give the team more strength to compete well and achieve the goal of qualifying for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship," Dinh Bac emphasized.
For fans, many people want coach Kim's team to win with a methodical, "smart" style of play and strikers taking advantage of opportunities rather than caring about the goal difference!
"On the FIFA rankings, Bangladesh is ranked 184th, 71 places lower than Vietnam. Therefore, in theory and in practice, U23 Vietnam is still considered the "upper hand".
Source: https://nld.com.vn/vong-loai-giai-u23-chau-a-2026-u23-viet-nam-du-suc-thang-bangladesh-196250902201133333.htm
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