Drawing with U17 UAE, U17 Vietnam regretfully missed out on World Cup ticket

The two teams entered the match confidently. Photo: VFF

On the night of April 10 (Vietnam time), in Saudi Arabia, the U17 Vietnam team faced the U17 United Arab Emirates (UAE) team in the final match of Group B of the 2025 AFC U17 Championship. With 2 points after 2 matches, the U17 Vietnam team must win to qualify for the next round.

With the excitement after drawing with U17 Australia and especially U17 Japan with the same score of 1-1, the U17 Vietnam team entered the match with enthusiasm against U17 UAE. Confident in holding the ball and launching attacks, U17 Vietnam scored the opening goal in the 20th minute. From a pass from the right wing, Duy Khang scored a tricky low shot that defeated the U17 UAE goalkeeper. This was Duy Khang's second goal of the tournament, after scoring against U17 Australia in the opening match. This was also the first time U17 Vietnam took the lead in a match of the tournament, after falling behind twice and then equalizing against U17 Australia and U17 Japan.

Duy Khang scored the opening goal to help U17 Vietnam take the lead. Photo: VFF

The loss forced UAE U17 to push up their formation, because if this result remained, they would be eliminated. However, the confidence of Vietnam U17 players was still maintained and the score of 1-0 remained after the first 45 minutes of play ended.

In the second half, U17 UAE attacked and the ball almost only rolled on the U17 Vietnam field. Although creating a few dangerous opportunities, U17 UAE could not score when they could not defeat goalkeeper Xuan Tin, or their shots were too unlucky. Meanwhile, U17 Vietnam players played confidently and confidently, occasionally creating dangerous counter-attacks.

It seemed that victory was firmly in the hands of U17 Vietnam, but in the 87th minute, from a set piece situation, player Faisal Mahdi headed the ball close to the goal to equalize 1-1 for U17 UAE. In the remaining minutes of the match, despite 2 substitutions, trying to attack with the spirit of not giving up, U17 Vietnam still could not score more goals, thereby accepting a 1-1 draw.

U17 Vietnam unfortunately missed out on World Cup ticket. Photo: VFF

Despite achieving an unbeaten result after 3 draws with the same score of 1-1 against U17 Australia, U17 Japan and U17 UAE, the U17 Vietnam team still stopped at the final round of the 2025 AFC U17 Championship, and regrettably missed the ticket to the 2025 U17 World Cup.

In the match on the same day, U17 Japan lost 2-3 to U17 Australia, but still advanced when U17 Vietnam was held to a draw by UAE.

With this result, U17 Japan (4 points) ranked first in the group and U17 UAE (4 points) ranked second but lost the secondary index and won the right to continue. The two teams U17 Australia (4 points) ranked third and U17 Vietnam (3 points) ranked last in the group were eliminated. Thus, the only team in Southeast Asia that won a ticket to the World Cup is U17 Indonesia.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/hoa-u17-uae-u17-viet-nam-de-tuot-tam-ve-world-cup-day-tiec-nuoi-698572.html