U20s to travel to Saudi Arabia ahead of AFC Cup finals

The team gathered on January 27 in the PVF Youth Football Training Centre in Hung Yen Province. They will have three weeks of training there before travelling to Saudi Arabia, where they will play friendlies with the hosts' U20 side.

The core of Vietnam's U20s remain unchanged from last year, including names such as Cao Van Binh, Nguyen Cong Phuong, Nguyen Van Truong, Khuat Van Khang, Nguyen Quoc Viet and Nguyen Dinh Bac.

Coach Hoang Anh Tuan has also summoned many other new players. From the preliminary list of 36 players, Tuan will whittle them down to the 23-man squad attending the Asian tournament.

Vietnam, who are one of the five second-placed teams with the best results in the qualifying round, will be in Group B with Iran, Australia, and Qatar.

The Vietnamese team are set to play their first game at the Asian Cup against Australia on March 1, then Qatar on March 4 and Iran on March 7.

Group B won't be easy for the men in red; Qatar won the tournament in 2014, Iran triumphed four times in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976, and Australia were the runners-up in 2010.

The four teams advancing to the semifinals will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup. As there are five places for Asia at the World Cup, if Indonesia, hosts of the World Cup, make it to the Asian Cup semi-finals, the two best-performing teams that lose the quarter-finals will compete in a playoff for the remaining slot.

"Vietnam's U20s used to attend the U20 FIFA World Cup, and the players made many career advancements. The current national senior Vietnamese team have a lot of good players who played in the U19 team in the 2016-2017 period, such as Ho Tan Tai, Nguyen Quang Hai, Nguyen Tien Linh and Nguyen Hoàng Duc. Therefore, I have high expectations for the current U20 players who will continue to gain success,” chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation Tran Quoc Tuan said.