Vietnam U23 to play friendly with Tajikistan

By Hoang Nguyen October 6, 2021 | 02:00 am PT

Vietnam U23 players at the AFC U23 Championship 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Khoa

To prepare for the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers, Vietnam will play an exhibition match with Tajikistan on Oct. 12 in the UAE.

According to the initial plan, the U23 team were supposed to train in South Korea this month. However, the location was changed to the UAE, where the team will play a friendly against Tajikistan.

At the moment, the U23 team are still training with high intensity in Hanoi. If everything goes to plan, UAE will be the first overseas training trip for the U23s in the past year. Last year, the players had missed the chance to play in France’s Toulon Cup, a friendly tournament with quality opponents like Argentina, Japan, Portugal, Qatar and Spain.

Group I of the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers will only consist of Vietnam, Myanmar and Taiwan as Hong Kong were moved to another group. All group matches will be hosted in Kyrgystan.

The U23 Asian Cup qualifiers will take place from Oct. 23 to 31. A total of 41 teams were drawn into 11 groups with 15 spots available. Uzbekistan have already qualified as hosts, marking the first time the tournament is staged in Central Asia.

After the qualifiers conclude, 11 group leaders and four best second-placed teams would claim tickets to 2022 U23 Asian Cup, set to take place from June 1 to 19.