The Vietnamese U23 football team has been ranked eighth in the Asian region, according to the latest rankings as announced by global football website Footy Rankings.

The rankings are based on the achievements of each national team during the most recent Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Asian Cup in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

In line with this, Viet Nam’s U23s are ranked eighth in Asia with 25,897 points, followed by Jordan on 24.228 points, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 23.535 points, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 22.964 points, Thailand on 20.441 points, and China with 20.360 points, the Voice of Viet Nam (VOV) cited the website.

During the 2016 AFC U23 Championship, the Vietnamese team failed to make it past the qualifying round after losing eight matches and finishing with no points.

Two years later the national U23 team led by head coach Park Hang-seo put in a number of outstanding performances in China to finish as runners-up of the 2018 AFC U23 Championship.

In the 2020 version of the event, Viet Nam failed to progress through to the final round, despite defeating Jordan and the UAE.

Viet Nam will play in Group I in the qualifiers for the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, alongside the likes of Myanmar, Hong Kong (China), and the hosts, Chinese Taipei (China).

The national U23 team is one of 19 sides in the East Zone, a region which has been divided into five groups.

A total of 19 teams in the East Zone will join 23 teams in the West Zone in competing in the qualifiers for the 2022 AFC U23 Asian Cup between October 23 and October 31.

The 11 group winners and the four best runners-up will qualify for the finals of the tournament, an event which is scheduled to take place between June 1 and June 19, 2022, in Uzbekistan.

Source: VNA