What does U20 Vietnam need to pass the group stage of the U20 World Cup 2017?

The draw of luck put U20 Vietnam in a group considered the easiest at the U20 World Cup 2017. So what conditions do they need to be able to create a surprise at the tournament?

Focus heavily on Honduras and New Zealand

The draw results yesterday afternoon (March 15) put U20 Vietnam in group E with U20 France, U20 Honduras and U20 New Zealand. Of the opponents that U20 Vietnam had to face, U20 France was of course the toughest.

New Zealand (white) defeated U20 Myanmar 5-1 at the 2015 U20 World Cup. Photo: Internet.

The 2013 U20 World Cup champion possesses a series of young world stars such as Marcus Thuram, son of famous player Lilian Thuram; Ludovic Blas, a mainstay at Guingamp, “French Coutinho” Maxime Lopez or the most formidable is Kylian Mbappe – the young striker who is playing very well for Monaco and also scored in the principality team's comeback victory over Man City in the 1/8 round of the UEFA Champions League.

Getting points against U20 France is certainly not easy. Therefore, focusing on two matches with easier opponents, Honduras and New Zealand, will be suitable for coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team. U20 New Zealand has participated in the U20 World Cup 5 times but only once they passed the group stage (in 2015).

The Oceania U20 champion lost 9/13 matches in the world arena. Similar to U20 New Zealand, U20 Honduras, although having participated in the U20 World Cup 7 times (including this time), up to 6 times, the current runner-up of the North, Central America and Caribbean region had to stop in the group stage.

3rd place can still go on

The competition format is still similar to many previous editions of the U20 World Cup, in addition to the top two teams in each group (a total of 12 teams), 4/6 third-placed teams with the best results will qualify for the round of 16. This format clearly opens up many opportunities for participating teams, especially for a rookie like Vietnam who is swimming in the big ocean for the first time.

U20 Vietnam can pass the group stage if they play their best and focus against Honduras and New Zealand - Photo: Internet.

Not to mention, the Vietnam Futsal team also benefited a lot from this selection format when participating in the 2016 Futsal World Cup. Because just one win or a draw is enough to be in the group of 4 third-placed teams with good results mentioned above.

The ranking in the group will still be based on the following priority order: Points, goal difference, number of goals before taking into account the head-to-head record if there are more than two teams equal in the above criteria.

Meanwhile, the division of the third-placed teams with the best results will be based on the following criteria in order of priority: Points, goal difference, number of goals, fair-play points and finally the draw (if the above 4 criteria are all balanced).

If they can play well against New Zealand and Honduras - teams that have participated in many previous U20 World Cups but are not very outstanding, U20 Vietnam can completely win the right to enter the round of 16, even dream of second place in the group.

According to bongdaplus