Asian Cup 2015 qualifying draw: Vietnam team "breathes easy"

The draw results for the 2015 Asian Cup qualifying round put Vietnam in a group that is considered relatively "easy" and the chance to reach the final round held in Australia is quite bright.

At 6:00 p.m. this afternoon (Australia time), or 2:00 p.m. (Vietnam time), the draw ceremony for the 2015 Asian Cup qualifying round was held in Melbourne (Australia).

Before the draw ceremony for the 2015 Asian Cup qualifying round, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced the seeding principles.

Accordingly, there are 4 seed groups participating in the qualifying round. Vietnam and Thailand are the two representatives of the Southeast Asian region that are rated the highest when they are placed in group 3. Meanwhile, teams from the same region such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are in group 4.

AFC Asian Cup 2015 takes place from 4 - 26/1/2015 in Melbourne, Australia.There will be 16 teams participating in the final round of the 2015 Asian Cup. The five teams that will be exempted from the qualifying round are Australia as the host country, Japan, the 2011 Asian Cup champion, South Korea - third place in the 2011 Asian Cup, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup champion and the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup champion (yet to be determined).

Because the current runner-up of the 2011 Asian Cup, Australia, automatically has a special ticket to attend the 2015 Asian Cup Finals, but this team is the host of the Finals, so the third-placed team with the best qualifying results will have a ticket to the Finals.

In order, the Organizing Committee will draw lots for the teams in group 4 first with the codes in groups A, B, C, D, E respectively. Next are groups 3, 2 and 1.

Vietnam National Team is in Group 3 of the second draw and has fallen into Group E. Vietnam National Team's opponents, in addition to Hong Kong (China) in Group 4, also include the United Arab Emirates (UAE, Group 2) and Uzbekistan (Group 1).

Compared to the draw results of other teams in the Southeast Asian region, Vietnam's group can be said to be the most favorable.

Vietnam National Team has participated in the Asian Championship once, that was the 2007 ASIAN Cup Finals. At that tournament, Vietnam National Team was the co-host with 3 other countries in the region: Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In the 2007 tournament, among the four host countries, the Vietnamese team had the best result when they reached the quarter-finals, losing 0-2 to Iraq, the team that later won the championship.

Previously, in the group stage, the Vietnam national team defeated the UAE 2-0 with two goals by Quang Thanh and Cong Vinh.

Specific draw results:

Table A:Jordan, Syria, Oman, Singapore

Table B:Iran, Kuwait, Thailand, Lebanon

Table C:Iraq, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia

Table D:Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Malaysia

Table E:Uzbekistan, UAE,Vietnam,Hong Kong (China)

According to Thethaovanhoa - DT