The Vietnamese team meets Laos again
The lucky draw put the Vietnamese team in Group F of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, along with rivals Malaysia, Nepal and Laos. Mr. Kim Sang-sik’s students will enter the Asian Cup qualifying journey from March 2025, with 6 matches spread over 1 year.
The opening match of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying match of the Vietnamese team is to welcome Laos at home on March 25, 2025. Then on June 10, 2025, the whole team will be a guest at Malaysia’s stadium. On October 9, 2025, the Vietnamese team returns to their home field to compete against Nepal.
After that, Quang Hai and his teammates will have two consecutive away trips against Nepal (October 14, 2025) and Laos (November 18, 2025), before closing the qualifying round with a heroic match against Malaysia on March 31, 2026.
Match table in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying round of the Vietnamese team
After determining the match schedule for the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) is planning training and friendly matches for the Vietnamese team. Because next year, each FIFA Days gathering of the Vietnamese team will only take place 1 match in the Asian Cup qualifiers, so the players will mix friendly matches and official tournament matches.
Fierce competition
The 24 teams participating in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers will be divided into 6 groups, each with 4 teams, playing in a double round-robin format to calculate points. Only the team ranked first in each group will qualify for the final round. This is different from the previous Asian Cup qualifiers, when tickets to the next round were given to the first and second group teams.
The task that VFF assigned to coach Kim Sang-sik is to bring the Vietnamese team through this qualifying round, to have the third consecutive appearance in the 2027 Asian Cup finals.
Besides the group with the Vietnamese team, in the remaining groups, specifically: Group A includes Tajikistan, Philippines, Maldives, Timor Leste; Table B: Lebanon, Yemen, Bhutan, Brunei; Table C: India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangladesh; Table D: Thailand, Turkmenistan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka; and Table E: Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Pakistan.
Historically, the Vietnamese team has participated in the Asian Cup finals 5 times, including 2 recent consecutive rounds including 2019 (quarterfinals) and 2023 (group stage).
The 2027 Asian Cup finals take place in Saudi Arabia from January 15 to February 8, 2027. Currently, 18 teams are present in the final round, including hosts Saudi Arabia, Australia, Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan, Qatar, UAE, Japan, Korea, Oman, Palestine, Bahrain, Jordan, China, Indonesia, and the People’s Republic of China. North Korea, Kuwait and Kyrgyzstan.
