U23 Vietnam entered the quarter-finals of the AFC U23 Championship 2022, which opponent to meet?

The situation of the U23 Vietnam group became unpredictable when the teacher and coach Gong Oh-kyun suddenly held a 1-1 draw with Korea U23. Specifically, currently U23 Thailand is leading the table with 4 points (difference +3), U23 Korea also has 4 points in second place (difference +3) due to receiving more penalty cards than Thailand U23. U23 Vietnam ranked 3rd with 2 points (difference 0). Malaysia U23 was definitely eliminated after 2 defeats.

In the last match, to get a ticket to continue, the mandatory condition is that U23 Vietnam must win against U23 Malaysia. We will wait for the result of the fierce match between U23 Korea and U23 Thailand to be able to determine the next ticket.

If all goes well, U23 Vietnam is likely to win tickets to the quarterfinals with second place in Group C (due to 2 points behind Thailand U23 and Korea U23 before the closing match). That means we can meet the top team of Group D in the knockout round.

Talking more about the situation of Group D, U23 Japan almost won the first ticket when in the last match they only met the eliminated team, U23 Tajikistan. Currently, they have 4 points after 2 matches, equal to U23 Saudi Arabia and 1 point more than U23 UAE. However, in the last match, the two competitors for the next ticket with Japan U23 had to face each other to win the ticket to go on. With this development, it is likely that U23 Japan will pour “goal rain” into the Tajikistan U23 net to create the advantage of competing for the first place in the table. This is not a difficult task for the sunrise team when they possess superior strength compared to the opponent. Not to mention U23 Tajikistan has run out of motivation to compete.

U23 Japan also tries to avoid defending champion Korea U23 (the most likely team in Group C), so it wants to take the top spot in Group D.

If the above scenario happens, U23 Vietnam will face U23 Japan in the quarterfinals. In the past, the Vietnam U23s made a sensation when defeating this opponent with a score of 1-0 in the last round of Group D of the Asiad 18 men’s football with the only goal of Quang Hai.