The draw for the Asian futsal qualifying round held by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) this year is the first time that the seeding groups are based on the FIFA rankings.
Thanks to its 31st place in the world and 5th place in Asia, the Vietnamese futsal team is placed in the number 1 seed group, along with strong teams such as Iran, Thailand, Japan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq.
This is a recognition of the stable performance of Vietnamese futsal over the past years, especially the series of 5 consecutive times passing the group stage since 2014 and reaching the semi-finals in 2016.
On the afternoon of June 26 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the draw ceremony for the 2026 Asian Futsal Championship Qualifiers took place with the lucky draw putting the Vietnamese futsal team in Group E with opponents Lebanon, China and Hong Kong (China).
In the upcoming qualifying round, Lebanon and China are considered the two main competitors of coach Diego Giustozzi and his team. Vietnam defeated Lebanon on away goals in the 2021 World Cup play-off round, and beat China 1-0 at the 2024 AFC Futsal Championship.
The 2026 AFC Futsal Championship qualifiers feature 31 teams, divided into 8 groups, including 7 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of only 3 teams. The teams will compete in a round-robin format in the host country of each group.
At the end of the qualifying round, the top 8 teams in each group and the 7 best runners-up will qualify for the Final Round, which will take place in Indonesia in January 2026. As the host, Indonesia will be given a special ticket to the Final Round without having to participate in the qualifying round.
The tournament will take place from September 20 to 24 and the Vietnamese team will gather to prepare for the important tournament after the National Futsal Cup in August.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/futsal-viet-nam-xac-dinh-cac-doi-thu-o-vong-loai-chau-a-2026-196250626154438346.htm
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