AFC U23 Championship: Will Miura and his team face the "death group"?

The grouping results mean that U23 Vietnam will have to face strong teams in the group stage.

The AFC (Asian Football Confederation) recently announced the seed groups for the AFC U23 Championship. Accordingly, Vietnam is in group 4 with Thailand, China and Yemen.

This is understandable because the red team came to this tournament as a rookie and only ranked second in the qualifying round, behind U23 Japan.

U23 players

Furthermore, in the qualifying round in 2013, U23 Vietnam lost 4/5 matches and almost finished last.

In case the draw results are not favorable, Miura and his team could fall into the same group with Iran, South Korea, Japan, Australia or North Korea.

If we are lucky, we will meet easier opponents like Jordan, UAE or Syria.

In the two most recent continental tournaments, Vietnamese football fell into a tough group.

At the 2014 U19 Asian Cup, U19 Vietnam could not overcome three "tough" opponents: Korea, China and Japan and was eliminated early.

But in the U23 Asian qualifiers, coach Miura's team defeated Malaysia on away field and squeezed through a narrow gap, joining Japan in the finals.

So, whether or not we are in a "death group" sometimes depends on our ability, form and luck.

The draw for the groups took place in late 2015 and the tournament will be held in early 2016 in Qatar.

Specific grouping results:

Group 1:Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan.

Group 2:Korea, Australia, Japan, UAE.

Group 3:Syria, Iran, North Korea, Uzbekistan.

Group 4:Thailand, China, Yemen, Vietnam.

According to Soha.vn