AFC points out Vietnam's biggest advantage at Asian Cup 2023; Germany wins U17 World Cup for the first time

AFC points out Vietnam's biggest advantage at Asian Cup 2023

The 2023 Asian Cup will begin on January 12, 2024 in Qatar. Before the match, the AFC had quite detailed assessments of the Vietnamese team.

Accordingly, in the latest article on the homepage, AFC believes that the Vietnamese team is holding a huge advantage and is likely to succeed in the upcoming tournament.

“The Vietnamese team has the advantage of being led by a coach who has tasted glory at the Asian Cup, Mr. Troussier. The team from Southeast Asia relies on Mr. Troussier's experience to aim for a successful tournament,” AFC commented.

The French coach has achieved great success when leading the Japanese team and has an understanding of Asian football.

Meanwhile, according to AFC, the Vietnamese team has just gone through a period of strong progress, so this promises to be a tournament for coach Troussier and his team to explode.

“Reaching the quarterfinals in 2019 or the quarterfinals in 2007 are the best achievements of the Vietnamese team in the Asian Cup arena. They have enough quality and experience to challenge the strongest teams in Asia,” the AFC website emphasized.

At the end of the article, AFC said that despite the change in coaching staff, the Vietnamese team is still a formidable team at the tournament in Qatar.

“Coach Park Hang-seo played a key role in the rise of Vietnamese football. Currently, Mr. Park is no longer leading this team. But they have a symbol of victory in Coach Troussier. The Vietnamese team will be worth watching at the 2023 Asian Cup,” AFC concluded.

At the 2023 Asian Cup, the red team is in a very difficult group with the presence of Japan, Iraq and Indonesia.

According to the schedule, coach Troussier and his team will play their opening match against Japan on January 14. Next, they will face Indonesia (January 19) and Iraq (January 24).

How strong is the opponent of the Vietnamese women's volleyball team at the world cup?

With the championship of the 2023 Asian Women's Club Volleyball Championship in May this year in Vinh Phuc, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team (under the name Sport Center 1) won a ticket to participate in the 2023 FIVB World Club Championship taking place from December 13-17 in China.

At the 2023 FIVB World Club Championship, 6 teams will be divided into 2 groups A and B to compete in a round robin. The first and second teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals. The Vietnamese women's team will be in Group B, a group with 2 very strong teams: Vakifbank (Türkiye) and Dentil Praia Clube (Brazil).

VakifBank is the most successful women's volleyball club in the world. The team has won the Women's Volleyball Club World Championship four times in 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2021, a club record. In addition, VakifBank has won the World Championship twice in 2011 and 2022, and third place twice in 2016 and 2019. In addition, the team has also won the European Women's Club Championship six times and been runner-up five times.

The remaining opponent of the Vietnamese women's team is Dentil Praia Clube, the number 1 club in Brazil at the moment and a force in South American women's volleyball. Dentil Praia has won the South American Women's Volleyball Club Championship twice in 2021 and 2023, and has been runner-up four times in this tournament. At the same time, they have won the Brazilian Super League in 2018 and 2023, along with being runner-up four times in 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Obviously, to be able to win against one of the two opponents above, coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team will have to play with 200% of their performance. Besides, this is also a good opportunity for Vietnamese players to compete with the world's top athletes today.

Germany won the U17 World Cup for the first time

The final of the 2023 U17 World Cup at Manahan Stadium in Surakarta (Indonesia) between Germany and France comes after the two teams met for the European title nearly 6 months ago. There, Germany won 3-1 in the group stage, then beat France on penalties in the final. Therefore, the team from the hexagonal country will have a chance to "take revenge".

Entering the match, the two teams tested each other because of the importance of this confrontation and each side knew that their opponents were in very good form at this year's U17 World Cup to qualify for the final.

It was not until midway through the first half that Germany began to actively press the French field. As a result, they opened the scoring from the 11m mark thanks to Paris Brunner in the 29th minute.

In the beginning of the second half, the "tank" continued to dominate the game. In the 51st minute, Noah Darvich scored to double the gap.

Being two goals down felt like a bucket of cold water, the French players pulled themselves together. Just 2 minutes later, Saimon Bouabre scored to reduce the score to 1-2.

The match became more exciting when Mathis Amougou scored for France in the 85th minute to bring the encounter back to the starting line.

Tied 2-2 after 90 minutes of official play, instead of playing extra time, according to tournament regulations, the two teams went straight into a nerve-wracking penalty shootout.

Here, with better spirit, Germany won with a score of 4-3, thereby officially winning the 2023 U17 World Cup Championship. Notably, this is the first U17 world title of German football.

Spain, Italy and France in two "death" groups at EURO 2024

The draw for the EURO 2024 finals this morning (December 3) has put two former European champions, Spain and Italy, in the same group B - soon to be dubbed the "group of death" - when both will also have to face the Eastern European duo, Croatia and Albania.

The fact that Albania topped a qualifying group shows that this "tiny" team is not a shoo-in while Croatia ranked in the world's Top 3 in the last two World Cups.

If Group B is labeled as the "group of death", Group D is also heavily "deadly" when former European and World Cup champions France will have to face the Netherlands, Austria and the winner of the play-off group A, most likely Wales, the team that should have won a direct ticket but ultimately lost the advantage to Croatia.

Besides these two groups that are predicted to be very difficult, experts noted that group C with England and group E with Belgium are relatively "easy".

Among the opponents of the "Three Lions", Denmark is no longer as strong as it was in EURO 2020, while Serbia has a serious imbalance between attack and defense. Slovenia is not worth mentioning as this Eastern European team can only rely on its big star, goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Belgium have once again been drawn in one of the easier groups, as they have done in recent EUROs and World Cups. Among the opponents of Domenico Tedesco's team, Slovakia and Romania have both qualified from easy groups, while the winner of the play-off group B will most likely be either Ukraine or Iceland.

Contrary to concerns before the draw, Group A of host Germany - the weakest team in the history of this country's football - is considered quite balanced with the addition of Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland.

In Group F, Türkiye and the Czech Republic, with their current squads, are capable of becoming formidable obstacles for former champions Portugal. Even if Greece or Georgia win the play-off series in Group C, it will be difficult for them to overcome these three opponents who are considered "superior".

EURO 2024 kicks off in Munich on June 14 with the opening match between hosts Germany and Scotland in Group A. The group stage of the finals will feature fierce matches, recreating both semi-finals of EURO 2020 with Spain taking on Italy in Group B (the fifth consecutive EURO the two sides have met) while England and Denmark will go head-to-head in Group C.

MU "exposed" to Newcastle

In the match of round 14 of the Premier League, Newcastle is in extremely good form at home when they have won 5 consecutive matches. Facing MU, the opponent ranked right above with 1 point more, the Magpies are determined to win all 3 points to temporarily rise to 5th place on the rankings.

The home team attacked right after the opening whistle and made the away team extremely confused. Diogo Dalot even almost scored an own goal after a misunderstanding with goalkeeper Andre Onana.

In the following minutes, Newcastle continuously bombarded Man United's goal, but thanks to luck and the dedication of center-back Harry Maguire and the diving of goalkeeper Onana, they were able to keep the net intact after the first half.

However, at the beginning of the second half, the Red Devils finally could not withstand the terrible pressure of the home team. In the 55th minute, MU played the ball incorrectly in their own half and Trippier stole the ball from Garnacho. The English defender crossed inside for Anthony Gordon to tap the ball into the goal to open the score.

With the opening goal, Newcastle immediately slowed down and gave the game to MU. However, the away team could not make a difference except for Maguire's goal being disallowed due to offside.

The final result of this match was 1-0 in favor of Newcastle. This is the third consecutive time they have defeated the Red Devils in all competitions. The Magpies have temporarily risen to 5th place and are above Tottenham due to a better goal difference. Meanwhile, MU have dropped to 7th place with 24 points after 14 matches.