U23 Vietnam ranked second in the Asian Cup, U23 Thailand dropped in the last minute

TPO - U23 Thailand almost made it into group 2 of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship finals draw, but Qatar's comeback win over Bahrain in extra time caused Thailand to drop to group 3. Thus, in Southeast Asia, only U23 Vietnam is still placed in group 2 in the draw.

In the match early this morning, U23 Qatar met U23 Bahrain with the mission of only needing a draw to qualify for the finals. However, they were down 0-1 after 90 minutes. In addition, Qatar lost a man due to a red card. That situation almost certainly brought victory to Bahrain.

If the score of 0-1 in favor of U23 Bahrain is maintained, the case of 3 teams with 6 points will occur. 3 teams U23 India, U23 Bahrain and U23 Qatar all have 6 points thanks to winning each other. In that case, the order of the teams will be considered based on the difference in goals scored/lost by them against each other.

U23 India will lead thanks to the best goal difference (3-2), followed by U23 Qatar (2-2) and U23 Bahrain (1-2). And India won the only ticket in Group H to continue. According to AFC regulations, the teams are in which group depends on their achievements in the last 3 AFC U23 Championships. Because of their poor performance compared to U23 Thailand, U23 India will be in group 3 in the draw while Thailand will be in group 2, equal to U23 Vietnam.

U23 Vietnam is still above U23 Thailand

But in the second minute of extra time, an incident happened. Despite losing a player, U23 Qatar still scored 2 consecutive goals to win 2-1 and regain the top spot. The final result was that Qatar won the ticket to the final round, India was eliminated. As a result, U23 Thailand was pushed down to group 3 in the draw.

Which group the teams are in depends on the results they achieved in the last 3 finals (2020, 2022 and 2024). In these 3 tournaments, U23 Vietnam has entered the quarter-finals twice and stopped in the group stage once. Meanwhile, U23 Thailand has stopped in the group stage twice and only entered the quarter-finals once. Therefore, U23 Thailand has accumulated a lower coefficient than Vietnam so it has to accept being in group 3 and U23 Vietnam is ranked in group 2.

In the draw for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship scheduled to take place later this year, Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian representative in Group 2. The team will compete with strong AFC football teams such as Korea, Australia and Qatar.

Seeding rankings at the 2026 AFC U23 Championship draw

Group 1

Saudi Arabia (host)

Uzbekistan

Japan

Iraq

Group 2

Korea

Vietnam

Australia

Qatar

Group 3

Thailand

Jordan

UAE

Iran

Group 4

China

Syria

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Source: https://tienphong.vn/u23-viet-nam-xep-hat-giong-so-2-vck-chau-a-u23-thai-lan-tut-hang-phut-cuoi-cung-post1777063.tpo