Vietnam has the best start in the history of the AFC U20 Championship

Since returning to international football, Vietnam has nine times qualified for the Asian U20 qualifiers, formerly known as the youth tournament or U19. In the previous eight times, Vietnam's best start was a win, a draw in 2016, also under coach Hoang Anh Tuan.

Including the time before 1975, Vietnam has participated in the tournament 11 times but never won the first two matches. The team's best performance in the tournament's 64-year history also came in 2016, when it reached the semi-finals. That achievement also helped Vietnam attend the U20 World Cup for the first time, with players such as goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung, defender Ho Tan Tai, Doan Van Hau, midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai or striker Nguyen Tien Linh.

The current situation of Vietnam is quite similar to 2016, when it was also in Group B, with two representatives from West Asia and an East Asian team. In both tournaments, Vietnam has the right to self-determination and only needs to draw in the last round to continue. Seven years ago, Hoang Anh Tuan's army drew the UAE 0-0 in the last match of the group stage and eliminated this opponent. If they repeat the same result against Iran on March 7, Vietnam will enter the quarterfinals and Iran is likely to be eliminated.

In the first two matches at U20 Asia 2023, striker Nguyen Quoc Viet opened the scoring against Australia and Qatar. Vietnam also won 1-0 in the opening match, and in the next match, the team needed a late goal from Nguyen Van Truong to defeat Qatar 2-1.

Quoc Viet is the first Vietnamese player to score in the first two matches of the group stage at the tournament. Since 2004, only one Vietnamese player has scored more than one goal in this arena, namely Hoang Thanh Tung in 2014. Quoc Viet and Thanh Tung both studied football at HAGL.

In the first two matches, Vietnam only kept the ball an average of 32% of the time, but both finished goals twice as much as their opponents. However, in the immediate future, Vietnam is the opponent leading the tournament in the number of shots - Iran with 43 opportunities. They are far ahead of the second ranked team in this parameter, Iraq with 30 shots.