Sharing on One HD TV channel, former football star Nashat Akram commented that the Vietnamese team will finish the group stage in second place. Meanwhile, the Japanese team is in first place, while Iraq is in third place.
The former Iraqi player also assessed that Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian team to advance from the group stage. The remaining 15 teams to advance are Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Tajikistan, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Qatar, Uzbekistan and Oman.
Coach Philippe Troussier and his team will face championship candidate Korea in the round of 16. Mr. Nashat Akram believes that the Vietnamese team will not create any surprises and will stop here.
Mr. Nashat Akram believes that the Vietnamese team will pass the group stage.
Meanwhile, Iraq finished third, falling into a difficult bracket but successively overcame Qatar and Uzbekistan before losing to South Korea. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann's team will meet Japan in the final.
Nashat Akram is a legend of Iraqi football. He won the 2007 Asian Cup. In that year's journey, Iraq defeated the Vietnamese team in the quarter-finals. Nashat Akram assisted Younis Mahmoud to open the scoring. Mahmoud then sealed the 2-0 victory himself with a free kick in the second half.
The last time the Vietnamese team met the Iraqi team was in November last year, in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. The West Asian team struggled to overcome the home team with a last-minute goal by Mohanad Ali.
Commenting on the upcoming match, coach Philippe Troussier said: " We have experience playing against them. I believe the players have learned a lesson about this opponent to deal with in the upcoming match. I hope the players will make an effort in all circumstances ."
The Vietnamese team traveled and arrived in Doha (Qatar) today, January 5. Coach Troussier brought 30 players before finalizing the list of 26 players on January 13. During the training period, the team will play a friendly match with the Kyrgyzstan team on January 9.
Coach Philippe Troussier aims to advance from the group stage and the match against Indonesia will be crucial to deciding the place in the next round. Before that, the Vietnamese team will play the opening match against Japan on January 14.
Van Hai
Source
Comment (0)