Vietnam to play friendly tie against Kyrgyzstan ahead of Asian Cup

Local players will gather together for a training camp on December 28 immediately after the eighth round of the V.League 1.

The team, led by coach Phillipe Troussier, will then fly to Qatar on January 5 to prepare for the 2024 Asian Cup.

This comes after Troussier made up a draft list of 50 players for the upcoming campaign on December 12. Most notably, Czech goalkeeper Filip Nguyễn, whose father is Vietnamese and has recently ended his 10-year journey to become a Vietnamese citizen, was also named in the list.

The list will be reduced to 35 before the squad travels to Qatar on January 5. Vietnam are 94th in the world rankings and will play a friendly against Kyrgyzstan, 98th in the world, on January 9.

The opening match of group D in the 2024 Asian Cup between Vietnam and Japan will take place at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on January 14.

In their second match on January 19, Vietnam will face Indonesia at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium. This is considered to be the key match for Vietnam, as Indonesia are viewed as the weakest team in the group.

The final group stage match will be against Iraq on January 24 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. Indonesia and Iraq are also Vietnam’s opponents in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

The 2024 Asian Cup will take place from January 12 to February 10 in Qatar. The tournament was scheduled to be held in the summer of 2023 in China but had to be postponed and the location was subsequently switched to Qatar.

During the tournament in Qatar, a total of 24 teams are divided into six groups and will compete in a round-robin format. The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams will enter the round of 16.

At the 2019 Asian Cup, Vietnam reached the quarterfinals, eventually losing to Japan.