VN ready to face Myanmar in Tokyo 2020 Olympics’ qualification

The Vietnamese women’s football team train in South Korea to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics third qualifying round. (Photo: vff.org.vn)

The match will take place at Jeju World Cup Stadium.

Vietnam only needs to win this match to secure a ticket to the next round as one of the two best teams of Group A.

Vietnam is in Group A with the Republic of Korea, Myanmar and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, the DPRK withdrew from the event for an undisclosed reason, making qualifying for the next round that much easier.

“We will try our best to beat Myanmar and then the match with the Republic of Korean will only be a formality as we will have won the right to enter the play-off tournament,” said coach Mai Duc Chung.

Chung said his team is very eager and confident to play their opening match of the event following their outstanding performance at the AFF Cup 2019 and SEA Games 30 in which they won both events.

Vietnam is considered better than Myanmar, as they defeated them 4-0 to top Group B in the AFF Cup 2019, before winning the tournament.

In Group A’s opening match, hosts Republic of Korea crushed Myanmar 7-0 on February 3.

Myanmar have all the key players that competed in the SEA Games 30 in the Philippines last December in which they won the bronze medal, while the Vietnamese side is mostly made up of the squad from the same tournament, except midfielder Chuong Thi Kieu who hasn’t recovered from her injury in the regional event.

Though they lost heavily to the Republic of Korea, Myanmar are confident ahead of the match with Vietnam.

Striker Yee Yee Oo said she believed in Myanmar’s abilities and while taking three points against Vietnam wouldn't be easy, Myanmar would make every effort to reach their target.

Yee said the match with the Republic of Korea was a very difficult challenge for her team. Myanmar didn’t play well in the cold weather and the Republic of Korea was too strong. Her team got a lesson from the loss with the Republic of Korea and they would try to improve in the upcoming match.

In the Olympic qualifiers, the eight strongest teams in Asia are divided into two groups.

The teams will play in a round-robin format from February 3-9 to decide the top two teams from each group for the play-off tournament.

In the play-off tournament, each team will have a home game and an away leg. The winners of each play-off match will be the Asian representatives at the Olympics, together with hosts Japan./.

VNA