Vietnam lost three matches and was relegated to the 2027 Asian U20 qualifying round

Toan lost three matches and finished bottom of Group C in the 2027 Asian U20 qualifying round, forcing Vietnam to play in the development round of the next tournament.

U20 Asia 2027 is the first tournament to apply the new format, with qualifying rounds and development rounds. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) relies on the results of the three most recent tournaments in 2018, 2023 and 2025 to group. Accordingly, the 32 teams with the best records will participate in the qualifying round, while the bottom 12 teams will participate in the development round.

The qualifying round has 8 groups. Teams compete in a round robin to select the 8 best teams and the 7 best second teams to attend the final round. The bottom 6 teams with the worst achievements will be relegated in the 2029 tournament, and will be replaced by three first-place teams and three second-place teams in this period's development round.

Vietnam ranked bottom of Group C after losing to North Korea 0-3, Palestine 1-2, and Iran 1-3. The team that did not win points had a goal difference of -6. This result is only better than Laos in Group H, Bangladesh in Group B, while the Philippines was relegated first due to withdrawing from Group A before the tournament.

Vietnam was relegated because Groups F and G had two bottom-ranked teams with 3 points, while Groups D and E had not yet ended. In Group F, the UAE came back to beat Turkmenistan 3-2 in the second half despite being 2-0 down in the first half, to push the opponent to the bottom of the group. In Group G, Cambodia dropped to the bottom of the group after losing 0-5 to Kuwait, despite having an exciting opening match against Yemen 2-1.

Ranking of teams ranked last in the 2027 U20 Asian qualifiers Team Rankings Matches Wins Draws Losses Goals Losses Points Difference 1 F Turkmenistan 3 1 0 2 4 5 -1 3 2 G Cambodia 3 1 0 2 2 14 -12 3 3 D Afghanistan 2 0 0 2 1 5 -4 0 4 E Hong Kong 2 0 0 2 0 5 -5 0 5 C Vietnam 3 0 0 3 2 8 -6 0 6 H Laos 3 0 0 3 1 7 -6 0 7 B Bangladesh 3 0 0 3 0 8 -8 0 8 A Philippines Eliminated

In the 2029 development round, Vietnam will have to compete with low-level football backgrounds in Asia, such as the Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, Bhutan, Macau, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos. The remaining two teams will be determined after qualifying Groups D and E end tonight, with Hong Kong and Afghanistan most likely.

This is the first time Vietnam has not won a match in the U20 Asian qualifiers after 10 years. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the group of players born in 1997, including Nguyen Quang Hai and Bui Tien Dung, reaching the 2016 U19 Asian semi-finals, to win tickets to the 2027 FIFA U20 World Cup for the first time.