Venues await Vietnam and Indonesia in second round of World Cup qualifiers

According to the FIFA, football's world governing body, the Vietnamese men’s football team will play an away game at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium against hosts Indonesia on March 21 before then returning for a home game on March 26 against Indonesia at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi.

Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Jakarta in Indonesia. It is mostly used for football matches and the stadium was named after Sukarno, the then-president of Indonesia who originally came up with the idea of building the sports complex.

When it first opened prior to the 1962 Asian Games, the stadium had a seating capacity of 110,000. It has since been reduced twice during renovations, first to 88,306 in 2006 for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup and then to 77,193 single seats as part of renovations made for the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Para Games where it hosted the ceremonies and athletics competitions.

It is the 28th largest football stadium in the world and is the eighth largest football stadium in Asia.

Located 10 kilometres northwest of central Hanoi, the 40,192-seat My Dinh National Stadium is the second biggest in the country in terms of capacity. It was officially opened back in September, 2003, and was the main venue for the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) later that year.

A total of 36 teams divided into nine groups are due to compete in the second qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup in the Asian region.

Vietnam have been drawn in Group F alongside Iraq, the Philippines, and Indonesia. On November 21, 2023, Vietnam lost 1-0 to Iraq in the dying minutes of a Group F match at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium.

The senior team will have two matches against Indonesia on March 21 and March 26, one against the Philippines on June 6, and another against Iraq on June 11.