VietNamNet Bridge – The national U-23 football team will challenge themselves in two international friendly matches after the Lunar New Year vacation before heading to Malaysia for the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualifying round slated from March 23 to and 31.

Toshiya Miura is expected to lead U-23 Vietnam through to the finals of the 2016 AFC Championship.

The invitees will be U-23 Indonesia and U-23 Uzbekistan, as agreed by the Vietnam Football Federation and Vietnam’s coach Toshiya Miura.

These two teams are considered most appropriate with Toshiya Miura’s training programmes and are expected to be quality training opponents for U-23 Vietnam ahead of the team’s Asian campaign.

The AFC qualifiers will bring together 43 teams drawn in ten groups, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up eligible for the finals, to be held in Qatar early next year.

Vietnam belongs to Group I along with Japan, Malaysia and Macau (China). The team will play the group opener against Malaysia on March 27 before taking on Japan and Macau on March 29 and 31 respectively.

After the 2016 AFC qualifying round, the national U-23 team will continue training in preparation for the 28th Southeast Asian Games scheduled for the middle of this year in Singapore, targeting to win the long-standing championship title.

Nhan Dan