Led by head coach Park Hang-seo, the team gained 4.5 points for winning the tie against local rivals Thailand and an additional 0.7 points for drawing 1-1 with Curacao in the final of the tournament.

The nation is followed by Jordan and Palestine in the rankings with Jordan on 1,226.3 points ahead of their fixture against Indonesia on June 11, and Palestine on 1,224 points ahead of their match against Kyrgyzstan on the same day.

If both win their matches, Jordan will gain an extra three points to climb to 1,229.3, whilst Palestine will earn five points to have reach a total of 1,229. However, the two national teams are unable to exceed Vietnam’s own total of 1,232 points.

The rankings act as a base for the draw of the second stage of the Asia-Pacific region’s World Cup 2022 qualifying groups. The tournament is set to begin in Qatar on November 21.

The 40 teams with the most points are to be placed in five seeded groups. Group one will include the top eight teams in Asia, group two will consist of teams sitting between 9th and 16th, group three will contain teams ranked between 17th and 24th, group four will contain teams ranked from 25th to 32nd, and group five will include the teams ranked 33rd and 34th.

A total of six teams will take part in the first qualifying round.

Group one will be made up of Iran, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Vietnam will be placed in group two alongside Iraq, Syria, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, and Palestine.

The Vietnamese team is currently ranked 16th in Asia and will be among the second seeds, this will mean the country will avoid some of the stronger teams in the qualifying process. VOV