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Vietnam drawn against title holders Saudi Arabia at 2020 AFC U19 Championship
  • | Nhan Dan | June 19, 2020 03:28 PM
Vietnam have been drawn to play reigning champions Saudi Arabia, Australia and Laos in Group C at the 2020 AFC U19 Championship, which will be hosted in Uzbekistan from October 14-31.


The draw results for the 2020 AFC U19 Championship. (Photo: AFC)

The official draw for the biennial tournament was held at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the afternoon of June 18, featuring 16 teams divided across four groups of four teams.

The Republic of Korea, the 2018 runners-up and the tournament’s most successful team with 12 titles, were drawn against Japan, Iraq and Bahrain in Group B, which is considered the “Group of Death”.

Four-time winners Iran will join hosts Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Cambodia in Group A, while Qatar, Tajikistan, Malaysia and Yemen make up Group D.

The teams will play in a round-robin group stage to decide which two teams from each group go forward to the knock-out round. The top four teams of the championship will qualify as AFC representatives for the 2021 FIFA U20 World Cup, alongside Indonesia who qualify automatically as the World Cup hosts.

If Indonesia are among the four semifinalists, three play-off matches will be played among the four losers of the quarterfinals to decide the fifth-placed team who win the fifth ticket to the 2021 FIFA U20 World Cup.

Vietnam have booked their place in the 2020 AFC U19 Championship as one of the four best second-placed teams in the qualification tournament.

In preparation for the 2020 AFC U19 Championship, Vietnam coach Philippe Troussier recently summoned 29 players for the team’s first training camp at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre from June 17-24.

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