Vietnam in the same group with France at U20 World Cup

The draw result on the afternoon of March 15th put U20 Vietnam in group E - a somewhat favorable group, with U20 France being the strongest team in the group.

Because they are only in Group Four, in FIFA's group, Vietnam could completely fall into a group of death at the 2017 U20 World Cup, with France (Group One), Argentina (Group Two), and England (Group Three).

However, that scenario did not happen when the draw drawn by the legendary Maradona put Argentina in the same group as the host Korea in Group A. England, drawn by another famous Argentine player, Pablo Aimar, also entered this group.

Vietnam fell into group E, where France was the seeded team.The next two teams in this group include the representative of Oceania from pot two - New Zealand, and the representative of the CONCACAF region from pot three - Honduras.

The first two matches of Group E will take place in Cheonan, a city located 83.6 km south of the South Korean capital Seoul. Vietnam U20 will face New Zealand on May 22, then France on May 25.

In the final round of the group stage on May 28, U20 Vietnam will travel 130 km to Jeonju city to meet Honduras. France and New Zealand will play in Daejeon.

According to the format applied to the U20 World Cup, in addition to the two tickets for the first and second places in each group, the four third-placed teams with the best results will win the remaining four tickets to the round of 16.

France qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup as winners of the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, where they beat Italy 4-0 in the final. New Zealand are the reigning Oceania Under-20 champions. Honduras were runners-up at the 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, where they lost to the United States on penalties in the final on March 5.

Argentina's famous player with the draw named Vietnam. Screenshot.

Vietnam’s entry into the semi-finals of the AFC U19 Championship, thereby securing a ticket to the 2017 U20 World Cup, can be considered a big surprise. Before the tournament in Bahrain began, the team was not highly regarded because in the previous six appearances, they were eliminated in the group stage, without even winning a single match.

In the group stage, coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team defeated North Korea 2-1, drew with UAE 1-1 and held Iraq to a 0-0 draw to finish second in Group B. All three of Vietnam's opponents in the group stage above have won the Asian Youth Championship at least once. In the quarter-finals, they continued to cause a shock when they defeated host Bahrain with the only goal scored by Tran Thanh.

VFF Vice President Tran Quoc Tuan (left of Cup) and Head Coach Hoang Anh Tuan (right of Cup) represent Vietnam at the 2017 U20 World Cup draw ceremony. Photo: VFF.

The FIFA U20 World Cup takes place from May 20 to June 11 with the participation of 24 teams. This is the first time in history that Vietnam has won the right to participate in this playground.

A day before the draw, FIFA divided the 24 teams that qualified for the tournament into four groups. Vietnam was placed in Group Four with Ecuador, South Africa, Iran, Guinea and Vanuatu.

This is the first time Vietnam has participated in a world-class playground for 11-a-side football.

In Pot One, besides host Korea, are teams with good results in previous tournaments: Portugal, Uruguay, France, Germany and the United States. Pot Two includes Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, Senegal, Japan and Mali. Pot Three includes Zambia, Honduras, England, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Venezuela.

According to the draw rules, FIFA draws teams from four groups into groups A, B, C, D, E and F. With the principle that teams from the same continent are not in the same group, Vietnam will avoid teams from Korea, Japan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

According to VNE