Vietnam eye rout over Macau in hope of advancing to Asian U-23 finals

The Vietnamese now rank second in the group with three points after a2-1 win over Malaysia and 0-2 loss to Japan.

Macau have been eliminated after losing 0-2 to Malaysia and 0-7 to Japan.

An emphatic win over the underdogs will likely leave Vietnam as one of the best five second-place teams to advance to the finals of the AFC U-23 Championship, as long as second-place squads from the other groups fail to achieve their desired results during their last qualifiers today.

Ahead of the game with Vietnam in Malaysia, coach Tam Iao San of Macau said he wants to exit the qualifying round with at least one point.

Japanese coach Toshiya Miura of Vietnam admitted, “I think it’s not easy to crush Macau, especially after I watched their performance in their 0-2 defeat against Malaysia.”

Vietnam likely will stage an attacking formation of 3-4-3 to take on Macau. In the match with Japan two days ago, Vietnam played the defensive formation of 5-4-1.

The Vietnam-Macau game will be broadcast live on VTV6 at 4:00 pm today.

The AFC U-23 qualification has 43 participating football teams, divided into 10 groups.

According to the rules, the 10 teams who top their respective group will advance to the finals in Qatar next year. They will be joined by five second-place squads who have the best results during the qualifying round.

However, Vietnam are now at the bottom compared to other second-place rivals in the other groups, except Group B, which has not yet started competition.

After two matches, Vietnam have a goal difference of 2/3, Yemen from Group D 7/1, Uzbekistan from Group E 6/0, Myanmar from Group F 5/1, Thailand from Group G 7/2, Indonesia from Group H 7/0, and Laos from Group J 7/0.

Oman and Saudi Arabia with a goal difference of 10/1 and 7/0 respectively are in Groups A and C with five teams each.