TEHRAN – Iran and Iraq football teams ended the 2020 AFC U23 Championship qualification with a goalless draw on Tuesday. Iraq advanced to the 2020 AFC U23 Championship as Group C winners and Iran booked a place at the competition as one of four best runners-up. The 11 group winners and four best runners-up joined hosts Thailand in the 2020 finals in January. The 2020 AFC U23 Championship will be the fourth edition of the AFC U23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. The tournament will be held from Jan. 8 to 26, 2020 in Thailand. This AFC U23 Championship will act as the AFC qualifiers for the Olympic football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Japan as the AFC representatives.<doc-sep>HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam are seeded in Pot 1 for the upcoming draw of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship finals, confirmed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Việt Nam are in Pot 1 as the reigning Asian runners-up alongside hosts Thailand, defending champions Uzbekistan and Asia’s third-placed team Qatar. Việt Nam booked a ticket to compete in the final as they topped Group K qualifying round after three wins and 11 goals with nine points. Thailand finished second with six points in the group but will still compete as the hosts of the finals. Forty-four teams took part in the qualification’s 11 groups which ended on Tuesday. The group-winning teams and four best second-placed ones qualified for the finals. According to the AFC, Pot 2 includes South Korea, Japan, Iraq and North Korea. Pot 3 consists of China, Australia, Jordan and Saudi Arabi, while Syria, Iran, UAE and Bahrain are in Pot 4. The draw is scheduled to take place in October. The best three teams of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship will earn tickets to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In other news, following beating Thailand and booking a ticket to compete in the 2020 AFC U23 Championship final, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism awarded the Vietnamese team VNĐ500million (US$21,700) and Việt Nam Football Federation also awarded VNĐ1 billion ($43,500) to the team. — VNS<doc-sep>Coach Park Hang-seo can use the match against Brunei to finetune his strategies and lineups for subsequent matches. Vietnam will start its journey of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers with the first Group K match against Brunei Friday night. Since they haven’t managed a win against Vietnam in the last three matches, and are bereft of their main striker Faiq Bolkiah for this tournament, Brunei are certainly the underdogs. Vietnam, the host team, will expect to win and take three points. At the press conference on Thursday, coach Park said he’d not had enough time to prepare and get to know his team well. This match is therefore an opportunity to review the squad before facing former opponents. The defense line is in need of further testing, given that key players like goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung has just returned from a long time sitting on the bench and defender Tran Dinh Trong from injuries, while the newcomers are still trying to integrate. In January 2018, led by Park Hang-seo, Vietnam participated in the 3rd AFC U23 Championship without much expectation. However, they delivered one surprise after another to reach the final, beaten by Uzbekistan in unfamiliar conditions in the last minute of extra time. This time, expectations are high, and they will weigh on the team and the coach. Much is expected of Nguyen Quang Hai, the star and captain of Vietnam U23. All Group K matches of the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers will be held at the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi. Vietnam faces Brunei on March 22, Indonesia on March 24 and Thailand two days later. All matches start at 8 p.m. Hanoi time and will be reported live.<doc-sep>
Vietnam (red) clash Thailand in the AFC U23 qualifier in Hanoi, March 26, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Lam Thoa Last year’s runner-up Vietnam is in Pot 1 with hosts Thailand, Uzbekistan and Qatar for the 2020 Asian tournament. The 16 teams participating in the fourth AFC U23 Championship were confirmed after the final qualifying round Tuesday. They were then drawn into four seeding groups according to their performances in the previous edition and the qualifiers, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded in Pot 1. Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Thailand South Korea China Syria Uzbekistan Iraq Australia Iran Vietnam Japan Japan UAE Qatar North Korea Saudi Arabia Bahrain Before the tournament gets underway, the 16 teams will be divided into four groups with representatives from each pot. With its pot 1 membership, Vietnam will be able to avoid Asian Cup champions Qatar and the AFC U23 reigning champion Uzbekistan, who beat Vietnam 2-1 in the last minute of extra time in the final last year. However, Vietnam may still clash with other regional heavyweights South Korea, Saudi Arabia or Iran in the very first phase. The official drawing ceremony is scheduled to take place in October 2019. Vietnam entered the tournament after topping group K of the qualification round. They convincingly defeated all three regional opponents Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand. The 2020 AFC U23 Championship will be held from January 8 to 26. The top three teams of the 4th edition will qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament as the Asian representatives, alongside hosts Japan.