Football

Việt Nam are against lower-leveled teams at Asian Cup 2026 qualification. Photo of VFF

HÀ NỘI -- Việt Nam are in easy group at the Asian Cup 2026 qualification after a draw conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 27.

The 34 sides were drawn into six groups of four teams and two groups of five, with the qualifiers to be hosted by Cambodia, Indonesia, Jordan, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Việt Nam.

Following the draw, Việt Nam will organise matches of Group E which gathers Guam, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Maldives, all are ranked lower than the hosts in the world ranking.

The SEA Games champion are world No 37, Guam No 92, UAE No 112 and Maldives No 163.

"Among the three teams, we only played and won over Maldives in the 2022 Asian women's qualifiers. However, recently, countries have been investing and improving strongly, so we cannot be subjective," said national head coach Mai Đức Chung.

Chung seemed raise the UAE the most saying: "Regarding UAE, on March 22, our HCM City Women's FC faced Abu Dhabi Country Club from the UAE. Through that match, we saw that UAE own physical advantages with naturalized players.

"Guam are a new opponent to us, but through information we took from the preliminary round, they are also powerful with physical strength advantage."

Other teams also discovered their opponents.

Group A will see Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Singapore and Bhutan battling it out while Thailand, India, Mongolia, Timor-Leste and Iraq were drawn in Group B.

Myanmar, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Turkmenistan will be the teams vying for the single spot to the Finals in Group C while Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Kyrgyz Republic and Pakistan will fight it out in Group D.

Group G will feature the Philippines, Hong Kong (China), Cambodia and Saudi Arabia while Group H will see DPR Korea, Malaysia, Palestine and Tajikistan competing for the ticket to the Finals.

Group F will see Uzbekistan, Nepal, Laos and Sri Lanka in action.

8 đội đứng đầu mỗi bảng sẽ giành vé vào VCK. Vòng loại diễn ra từ 23/6 đến 5/7 năm 2025.

The eight group winners will join defending champions China, South Korea and Japan in the Finals, scheduled to be staged across three host cities from March 1 to 26, 2026.The qualifiers will be played from June 23 to July 5. VNS