U20 Vietnam falls into 'group of death' at the 2023 AFC U20 Finals

On the afternoon of October 26, the draw ceremony for the 2023 AFC U20 Championship Finals took place. The 16 teams competing in the AFC U20 Championship taking place in Uzbekistan include: Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Indonesia, Oman, Tajikistan, Iran, Australia, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, China, Iraq and Syria.

Southeast Asia has only 2 representatives present.U20 Vietnamand U20 Indonesia. U20 Thailand was unfortunately eliminated from the tournament due to a lower fair-play index than Syria and Iraq (despite having the same score and goal difference) when considering the achievements of the second-placed teams.

U20 Vietnam falls into a difficult group at the 2023 Asian Finals. Photo: Hai Hoang

Vietnam U20 is in group 3 with Jordan, China and Iraq. Meanwhile, the host team Uzbekistan is in group 1 with Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Qatar. Group 2 includes Indonesia U20, Japan, Tajikistan and Australia. Group 4 includes Iran, Oman, Syria and Kyrgyzstan.

According to the draw results, U20 Vietnam is in group B, along with strong opponents including U20 Qatar, U20 Australia and U20 Iran. This is a group that is considered very difficult for coach Dinh The Nam and his team.

The 2023 AFC U20 Championship finals will take place in Uzbekistan in August 2023. Teams will compete in a round robin format to determine rankings in groups. The first and second teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals.

The four semi-finalists will qualify for the 2023 U20 World Cup in Indonesia. Since Indonesia is the host, if the team reaches the semi-finals of the 2023 AFC U20 Championship, one of the losing quarter-finalists will qualify for the 2023 U20 World Cup (the four losing quarter-finalists will play a play-off).