The third qualifying round of the 2023 Asian Cup: 3 Southeast Asian teams light their way to the finals

In the third qualifying round of the 2023 Asian Cup with 6 groups, the top teams of the group won direct tickets and the 5 best runners-up teams got tickets to the final round.

All three strong teams in this region started with convincing victories, of which Thailand easily defeated the Maldives 3-0 and the next match if they beat Sri Lanka (11/6), the “War Elephants” will soon be sure. The rate is 1 of the 5 runner-up teams with the best results in 6 groups to advance. And if you win Uzbekistan team the last match (June 14), they will get the official ticket (top of the table).

The Indonesian team is most likely to get a spot for the 2023 Asian Cup finals PSSI

Meanwhile, the Malaysian and Indonesian teams fell into a difficult group, but after the opening match, they were also full of hope for tickets to the finals when they both won against strong opponents, respectively Turkmenistan (134th place). world) score 3-1 and Kuwait (ranked 146) score 2-1.

With these wins, in Group E Malaysia team under new coach Kim Pan-gon has made an impressive start. With this momentum, they are hoping to continue to overcome the remaining strong opponent, Bahrain on June 11 at Bukit Jalil’s home ground to achieve the goal of winning tickets to the Asian Cup finals for the first time since 2007.

The good start of coach Kim Pan-gon also helped the Malaysian press to temporarily forget the disappointment from the U.23 youth team in the Asian U.23 tournament (losing all 3 group matches). The ruler himself Korea This player also began to show his confidence through the statement: “Malaysian team is making progress, and I strongly believe the team goes further in a more solid way”.

The Indonesian team under Korean coach Shin Tae-yong also hopes to attend the 2023 Asian Cup finals after succeeding at the AFF Cup 2020 (final). But winning only bronze at SEA Games 31 with the U.23 team (with the majority of players in the team) and the draw with Bangladesh in a friendly match (0-0) on June 1, causing this military leader to doubt his ability.

However, the victory over Kuwait in the third qualifying round of the 2023 Asian Cup helped the Indonesian team regain some confidence, and coach Shin Tae-yong also affirmed: “We are still making progress despite many doubts. This achievement has helped the Indonesian team go a long way, and there is much hope to achieve its goal.” In table A, Indonesian team There are 2 possibilities to win tickets to the finals if the next match wins against the heavyweight candidate in the table, Jordan, because the last match they only met Nepal was quite weak.

Teams in other Southeast Asia, such as Singapore (in Group F) was disappointing when they lost 1-2 to Kyrgyzstan, in the same group, Myanmar also lost heavily to Tajikistan 0-4. In Group D, Cambodia lost to host India 0-2. In Group B, the Philippines drew 0-0 with Yemen.

According to the assessment of the regional press, it is likely that the 2023 Asian Cup Finals will have 4-5 teams in Southeast Asia participating after the 2019 participation in the UAE with 3 teams including Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. In the 2023 tournament (Asian Football Confederation is still looking for a new host country after China give up the right to host) in Southeast Asia, only the Vietnamese team won a direct ticket.