Vietnam were among the 16 teams making to the finals of next year’s AFC U23 Championship in China as one of the best six runner-ups in the group stage qualification.
On Tuesday, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have announced the seedings for the draw and Vietnam U22 will be among the four countries in the pot of bottom seeds, along with Oman, Palestine, and Malaysia.
Being allocated in the lowest pots, Nguyen Huu Thang’s side will be likely to be drawn into the “group of death”, thus have to face many strong opponents in the tournament.
According to the seedings, 16 teams, including the hosts China, are allocated into 4 seed groups with 4 teams in each group. Group 1 consists of China, Japan, South Korea and Iraq.
Qatar, Jordan, North Korea, and Australia are falling into Group 2 seedings, while Uzbekistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Thailand are among Group 3.
The draw for the finals has not been decided yet.
The 2018 AFC U23 championship is scheduled to take place 9–27 January 2018, and will be played in four cities and four stadiums. So far the cities of Kunshan, Changshu, Jiangyin, and Changzhou have been identified as potential venues.