Vietnam have gone through their longest losing streak (seven matches) after facing Asia's top teams in the World Cup qualifiers.
A victory against Laos in the AFF Cup opener would be a huge boost mentally for the team and this will not be a hard task for coach Park Hang-seo and the players.
In the most recent seven encounters between two teams, Laos lost all of them and failed to score any goal. On FIFA world ranking, Laos are 185th while Vietnam 99th.