On the afternoon of October 2 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held the drawing ceremony to divide the groups for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship.
According to AFC's seeding rules, 15 teams (except host Saudi Arabia) are divided into 4 groups based on their performance in the last 3 finals, with corresponding scoring coefficients: 100% for the 2024 tournament, 50% for the 2022 tournament and 25% for the 2020 tournament.
With the 2022 qualifiers (ranked 7th out of 16 teams) and 2024 qualifiers (ranked 6th out of 16 teams) in addition to 2020 (stopped in the group stage, ranked 13th out of 16 teams), U23 Vietnam is ranked in the second seed group with the 6th out of 16 teams at the 2026 Finals, in the same group as Korea (ranked 5th), Australia (7th), Qatar (8th).
Meanwhile, group 1 includes: Saudi Arabia (host), Uzbekistan (1), Japan (2), Iraq (3); group 3 includes Thailand (9), Jordan (10), UAE (11), Iran (12); group 4 includes China (13), Syria (14), Kyrgyzstan (15), Lebanon (16).
As a result, U23 Vietnam is in group A with host Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kyrgyzstan.
Compared to the remaining groups, group A is considered "easier" for U23 Vietnam in competing for one of the two leading positions in the quarter-finals.
Host U23 Saudi Arabia is of course the most highly rated, while Jordan is also an opponent that U23 Vietnam needs to pay close attention to because in the qualifying round, they won the ticket to continue as group leader.
For U23 Kyrgyzstan, this is the first time they have a ticket to the U23 Asian Cup.
Meanwhile, Group B includes defending champion Japan, Qatar, UAE , Syria; Group C includes Uzbekistan, South Korea , Iran, Lebanon; Group D includes Iraq, Australia, Thailand, China.
According to the competition format, the 16 teams participating in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship will be divided into 4 groups to compete in a round-robin format, with the top 2 teams in each group advancing to the quarter-finals.
The 2026 AFC U23 Championship will take place from January 7 to January 25, 2026 in Saudi Arabia.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/xac-dinh-bang-dau-cua-u23-viet-nam-tai-vck-u23-chau-a-2026-171863.html
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