Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s U18 players will be called up fortraining later this month in preparations for the qualifying round for the 2020Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U19 Championship. 

Before the qualifying round, the players will challenge themselves at the 2019 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U18 Boys’ Championship hosted by the VFF fromAugust 5-18, according to the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF).

At the tournament, they are in Group B with the reigning champions Malaysia,Thailand and Australia, who won the championship five and four times,respectively, along with Singapore and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Group A consists of Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, TimorLeste, the Philippines, and Brunei.

At the qualifying round for the 2020 AFC U19 Championship, Vietnam will be inGroup J with Mongolia, Guam and the tournament’s favourites, hosts Japan.Matches of Group J will take place in Vietnam from November 2-10.

The qualifiers will see the participation of 46 teams, which will be dividedinto 11 groups. The 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams amongall groups shall qualify to the Finals alongside the hosts.

In April, Vietnam’s U18s ranked second at the international U18football tournament in China’s Hong Kong.-VNA