To qualify for the 2025 AFC U17 Championship, Vietnam U17 must pass the qualifying round with 3 matches against Kyrgyzstan U17, Myanmar U17 and Yemen U17. All 3 opponents of Vietnam U17 are not teams with a tradition of regularly participating in continental tournaments.
How strong is U17 Vietnam's opponent?
Among Vietnam U17's opponents in the 2025 AFC U17 qualifiers, only Yemen U17 has participated in the final round in 2023. The generation of players born in 2006-2008 played well, reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament before being eliminated by Iran U17 on penalties. The current Yemen U17 squad has 3 players who participated in that tournament: Adel Qasem, Abdulrahman Al-Khadher and Wadhah Al-Radfani.
Yemeni football has not been a strong team in Asia in recent years. The golden age of Yemeni youth football was from 2002 to 2004, when they won the runner-up title in the AFC U17 Championship and qualified for the U17 World Cup. Since 2016, Yemen has continuously had representatives in the AFC U17 Championship but has never advanced past the group stage.
However, in this qualifying round, U17 Yemen is still rated higher than U17 Vietnam. The achievement of reaching the quarterfinals of the 2023 tournament helps the West Asian team to be ranked in the number 1 seed group. U17 Yemen is the strongest opponent of U17 Vietnam in Group I.
U17 Yemen is the most formidable opponent waiting to compete with U17 Vietnam.
The remaining two opponents of U17 Vietnam in Group I are U17 Kyrzystan and U17 Myanmar. Both of these teams are not highly rated in continental tournaments and rarely pass the qualifying round. To qualify, U17 Vietnam must beat these two opponents.
Kyrzygstan U17 has only qualified for the Asian tournament once in its history in 2016. From 1998 to now, Kyrzygstan U17 has played in the qualifying round 11 times and failed to advance 10 times.
Myanmar U17 is a bit better. They participated in the finals in 2000, 2002 and 2006, but have not qualified since 2010. The last time audiences saw Myanmar U17 at the Asian Championship finals was 18 years ago.
In the group stage of the 2024 Southeast Asian U16 tournament, the U17 Vietnam team (then the U16 team) defeated U16 Myanmar with a score of 5-1. Of the 4 players who scored for U16 Vietnam in that match, 3 continued to participate in this qualifying round: Nguyen Viet Long, Nguyen Thai Hoa and Nguyen Thai Hieu.
Conditions for U17 Vietnam to pass the qualifying round
Match schedule of Vietnam U17 team.
Vietnam U17 is in Group I of the 2025 AFC U17 Championship qualifiers, taking place at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho) from October 23. Vietnam U17 will play Kyrgyzstan U17 (October 23), Myanmar U17 (October 25) and Yemen U17 (October 27). Vietnam U17 needs to get good results against Myanmar U17 and Kyrgyzstan U17, before playing Yemen U17 in the final match.
According to the 2025 AFC U17 Championship qualifying format, the teams are divided into 10 groups, including 7 groups of 4 teams and 3 groups of 5 teams. Lebanon U17 withdrew, leaving Group H with only 3 teams. Only the group winners and 5 best runners-up will qualify for the final round in Saudi Arabia next year.
Thus, U17 Vietnam will only be sure to qualify for the final round if they top the rankings. In case they finish second in the group, coach Cristiano Roland and his team will need to compare their results with the other second-placed teams. Because there are three teams in the group, U17 Vietnam will have to subtract the results of their matches against the bottom team.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/soi-suc-manh-3-doi-thu-cua-u17-viet-nam-tai-vong-loai-u17-chau-a-2025-ar903120.html
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