Vietnam’s U16 team gathered in Hanoi on January 5 to kick off their nearly-two-month training for the second qualifying round of the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s U16 Championship.

Vietnam defeat Lebanon 7-0 in the first qualifying round of the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s U16 Championship (Photo: VFF)

Head coach Nguyen Mai Lan said the 27-member team includes two new faces as compared to the squad competing in the first qualifying round. They are Hong Nhu Hoa from the national junior team and Le Duong Hoang My from the Ho Chi Minh City football club.

As scheduled, the team will have a 10-day training session in Cam Pha city in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh starting January 7. They will return to Hanoi on January 17 to continue their training in two weeks before the lunar New Year holidays, which lasts for a week. The training will resume in Ho Chi Minh City for 10 days to help the players get used to hot weather.

On March 1, the team will leave for Laos to play the second qualifying round, where they play the hosts Laos, Iran and Australia.

In the first qualifying round, Vietnam defeated Lebanon 7-0, Bahrain 14-0 and the United Arab Emirates 4-0, and lost 2-0 to the hosts Bangladesh in Group F. These results secured the team the second place and a spot in the next round.

The second qualifying round will include eight teams and divided into two groups. 

The two winners of each group will qualify for the final round of the AFC Women’s U16 Championship with the hosts Thailand together with the winner, runner-up and second runner-up of the previous tournament, namely the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea and Japan.-VNA