Vietnam team meets three strong Asian teams in October

Vietnam will train in China, in turn meeting the home team on October 10 and Uzbekitan on October 13. After that, the team went to Korea to play the national team on October 17.

Before the trip to East Asia, coach Philippe Troussier's teachers and students had another friendly match against Palestine on September 11 at Thien Truong, Nam Dinh.

All four opponents are equal or stronger than Vietnam. The FIFA ranking of the increasing teams is Palestine (96th), China (80th), Uzbekistan (74th) and South Korea (28th).

Vietnam has only met Palestine once and lost 1-3 in a friendly in November 2014. Before China, Vietnam lost seven and won one. The last two matches took place in the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup when Vietnam lost 2-3 in the first leg and won 3-1 in the second leg at My Dinh Stadium.

Uzbekistan won 3-1 and 3-0 against Vietnam in 2013 in the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers. The Central Asian team has some outstanding faces with striker Eldor Shomurodov playing for Cagliari in Serie A and 19-year-old young defender Abdukodir Khusanov plays for Lens in Ligue 1.

In six confrontations, Vietnam lost five and won one against South Korea. The 1-0 victory with Pham Van Quyet's goal that shocked Asia took place in October 2003 at the 2004 Asian Cup qualifiers. Currently, Korea owns many stars playing in Europe such as Son. Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur), Lee Kang-in (PSG), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) or Hwang Hee-chan (Wolves).

Under coach Philippe Troussier, Vietnam played two friendlies in June 2023, both winning 1-0 Hong Kong and Syria. The upcoming four matches against strong opponents are good rehearsals for the team to prepare for the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, against the Philippines and Iraq respectively in November. After that, the Vietnamese team will attend the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar in October. 1/2024, in the same group as Indonesia, Iraq and Japan.