Vietnam Olympic's opponent in the round of 16 could still be Korea
Having won the top spot in Group D with 9 absolute points, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team are eager to know the identity of their next opponent in the knockout round of ASIAD 18 in Indonesia.
Thus, the opponent of coach Park Hang-seo and his team will be the third-placed team with good results in one of the three groups B, E, F. The identity of the opponent of the Vietnam Olympic Team in the round of 16 of the ASIAD this year can be predicted right now.
Table B
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| Group B situation after 3 matches. |
Currently, the situation in Group B has been decided when Olympic Thailand is the 3rd team, with 2 points and a goal difference of -1. In Group E and F, there is still one final round of matches left to play.
In calculating the probability of Vietnam Olympic's opponents in the round of 16, there is only 1 in 15 possibilities that Vietnam will have to meet Thailand in group B, while there are 7 possibilities of meeting teams from groups E and F.
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| Vietnam Olympic team is likely to face the third ranked team of group E or F. |
Thus, although Thailand of Group B may be one of the four third-placed teams with the best results, the probability that Coach Park's team will have to face the representative of the land of golden pagodas is very low.
Group FIn Group F, Olympic Iran and Saudi Arabia have secured their place in the next round with 4 points after 2 matches, while Myanmar and North Korea both have only 1 point and the same goal difference of -3.
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| Group F situation after 2 matches. |
The remaining two matches are between Iran and Myanmar and Saudi Arabia and North Korea. If they lose, the two West Asian representatives could lose their rankings, leading to facing unfavorable opponents in the next round. Therefore, it is very unlikely that Myanmar and North Korea will win against the two representatives of Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In case Myanmar and North Korea lose, they will only have 1 point and will definitely be eliminated from the tournament.
If the result is a draw, Myanmar and North Korea with 2 points, a goal difference of -3 will still be eliminated because currently there are 3 third-placed teams: Indonesia, UAE and Pakistan with 3 points, while Thailand Olympic of group B also has 2 points but a better goal difference (-1).
Table EIn group E, Olympic Malaysia with 6 points in hand has certainly entered the knockout round, standing at the top of the group and meeting Olympic Japan.
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| Group E situation after 2 matches. |
The remaining three teams, Olympic Korea, Kyrgyzstan and Bahrain, are all capable of finishing third in this group and advancing.
In the next match, if they unexpectedly win against Malaysia and South Korea respectively, Bahrain or Kyrgyzstan could be the next opponent of Olympic Vietnam. Bahrain is completely capable of advancing to the next round of ASIAD this year when their opponent, Malaysia, has completed its group stage obligations and does not need to worry about the next match.
Another possibility that is likely to happen is that if Kyrgyzstan draws with South Korea while Bahrain fails to beat Malaysia, the group order will remain the same, meaning Kyrgyzstan will face Vietnam in the first knockout round.
On the contrary, the opponent of Van Quyet and his teammates will be Olympic Korea in case the kimchi team loses to Kyrgyzstan and Bahrain fails to beat Malaysia.
According to the above calculation, the most likely opponent to face Vietnam Olympic is a team in Group E. Although Coach Park wants to avoid meeting his home team early, it is still possible that Vietnam Olympic will have to face Korea from the round of 16.
