HÀ NỘI — Teams learnt who their opponents will be in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup Jordan 2018 qualifiers after the draw was held in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday.

Việt Nam will host Group D with other participants, Myanmar, Iran, Syria and Singapore.

The other 16 teams are divided into three groups - Group A with six teams will play in Tajikistan; Group B will be hosted by North Korea; and Group C games will be held in Palestine.

The three highest ranked women’s national teams from the last AFC Women’s Asian Cup – Japan, Australia and China – have automatically qualified in the eight-team finals. The group winners of each of the four groups will qualify for the finals in Jordan.

Jordan as hosts also got automatic qualification, but they have expressed interest in playing in the qualifiers. If they finish at the top of their qualifying group, the runners-up team will also advance to the final competition. The qualifiers will kick off on April 3.

The finals, which will be held from April 7 to 22, 2018, will also serve as the Asian qualifiers for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019. The five best teams will book their tickets to Paris.

Vietnamese players will start practice under coach Mai Đức Chung after the Lunar New Year. They will play their first match against Syria on April 5. The other matches will be versus Singapore (April 7), Iran (April 9) and Myanmar (April 11).

Three year ago, the finals were held in HCM City, and Việt Nam failed to get a ticket to Canada 2015 World Cup after losing 1-2 to Thailand. — VNS