Another V-League team wants to rescue 'Vietnamese Messi'; Hanoi FC receives good news before playing AFC Champions League

U23 Malaysia changes coach after series of defeats against U23 Vietnam and U23 Thailand

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) announced that Mr. Elavarasa has asked to resign as head coach of the Malaysia U23 team and has been accepted. This decision was made after an agreement between Mr. Elavarasa and FAM President Datuk Haji Hamidin. Mr. Elavarasa will return to work as assistant coach to coach Kim Pan Gon in the Malaysian team.

Meanwhile, FAM will look for a new coach to lead U23 Malaysia at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals. In the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, U23 Malaysia won the last ticket to the finals when they finished 4th in the group of 4 best second-placed teams.

The departure of coach Elavarasa extends the crisis of the Malaysian U23 team. Coach Elavarasa's predecessor, coach Brad Maloney, disappointed when he was consecutively eliminated in the group stage of the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 and 2022 Asian U23. At the continental tournament a year ago, the Malaysian U23 also suffered a defeat againstU23 Vietnamand U23 Thailand.

Another V-League team wants to rescue "Vietnamese Messi"

In recent days, there has been heated information about striker Nguyen Cong Phuong being recruited by many V-League teams.

Most recently, a source revealed that Binh Duong Club is very interested in having Cong Phuong's service in the new season. Notably, the Go Dau Stadium team wants to borrow the Nghe An-born star from Yokohama FC for 1 year, then consider buying him outright.

According to many opinions, this is very likely to happen because Cong Phuong is not in the J-League 1 team's plans. Since joining Yokohama FC in early 2023, the former Hoang Anh Gia Lai star has only been on the field for exactly 2 minutes in the loss to Nagoya Grampus in the Japan League Cup.

As for Binh Duong Club, this team is in the process of changing its squad for the 2023-2024 season. Not long ago, the team in the land of Thu extended the contract with striker Nguyen Tien Linh. Besides, they also brought in many high-quality new players, typically Que Ngoc Hai or Nguyen Hai Huy.

Recently, the Japanese version of Football Tribe revealed that Ho Chi Minh City and Nam Dinh clubs are also ready to welcome Cong Phuong if he agrees to return to Vietnam to play football.

UEFA Champions League opening round schedule: MU vs Bayern Munich

The 2023/2024 UEFA Champions League group stage will kick off in the middle of this week. According to the schedule, the two earliest matches will take place at 11:45 p.m. on September 19 (Vietnam time): AC Milan will host Newcastle and Leipzig will visit Young Boys.

Defending champions Man City will play against Red Star Belgrade at 02:00 on September 20. At the same time, Real Madrid will host Union Berlin, Atletico Madrid will visit Lazio, Barca will face Antwerp, PSG will face Dortmund, Shakhtar will play Porto, Feyenoord will meet Celtic and Galatasaray will face Copenhagen.

The focus of the opening round of the 2023/2024 European Cup is the big match between Bayern Munich and MU. The match at Allianz Arena will take place at 02:00 on September 21. This is the match that marks MU's return to the European Cup 1, after only participating in the European Cup 2 last season.

According to the competition format, the teams are divided into 4 groups, each group has 8 teams and compete in a round-robin. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the knockout round. Meanwhile, the third-placed team in each group will be relegated to the European Cup C2.

After determining the 16 teams that have passed the group stage, the first leg of the round of 16 will take place in February 2024 and the second leg will take place in March 2024. The quarter-finals will take place in April 2024 and the semi-finals will take place in May 2024. The 2023/2024 European Cup season will end with the final on June 2, 2024 at Wembley Stadium (England).

Hanoi FC receives good news before playing AFC Champions League

Vietnam's football representative participating in the AFC Champions League 2023-2024, Hanoi FC, received very good news right before the opening match against Pohang Steelers (Korea).

Before playing Pohang Steelers (Korea) in the 2023-2024 AFC Champions League, the Vietnamese football representative in the number 1 arena of the clubs in the continent had a quality contract. Specifically, the management unit of Hanoi FC signed a comprehensive cooperation with the television 'giant' FPT Play for 4 years (2023-2027).

According to the orientation, these two partners will jointly build cooperation programs and projects, especially in the fields of sports and entertainment. Based on exploiting and utilizing the resources and advantages of each side, these activities aim to promote the value and recognition of products and services of Hanoi FC and its partners.

In preparation for the 2023-2024 AFC Champions League, Hanoi FC and its partners have carried out a series of cheering programs for the capital team in many public places and universities in Hanoi.

Despite being placed in a rather difficult group in their first AFC Champions League appearance, Hanoi FC is confident that they will not disappoint when representing Vietnamese football. Mr. Hien's team recruited 6 foreign players worth about 3 million USD, while also adding quality domestic players such as Xuan Manh, Van Hoang (from Song Lam Nghe An), Van Nam (from Ha Tinh)... to serve the campaign to conquer the continental playground.

Hanoi FC's opening match in the group stage of the 2023-2024 AFC Champions League is a clash with Pohang Steelers (Korea) on September 20./.