Before facing U23 Vietnam in the match they had to win to win a ticket to the next round, U23 Saudi Arabia did not play badly at all. They started quite smoothly with a 1-0 victory over U23 Kyrgyzstan.
Despite losing to U23 Jordan with a score of 2-3 in the 2nd match of the group stage, U23 Saudi Arabia also had a fairly good game. Of course, U23 Jordan were the ones who did better by winning 3 points against the home team.
The remaining task of U23 Saudi Arabia is to just defeat U23 Vietnam without caring about the result of the remaining match between U23 Jordan and U23 Kyrgyzstan, they will definitely have a ticket to the quarterfinals.
It sounds simple for a team considered a candidate for the championship, and also the host team, but this is an invisible pressure on the feet of coach Luigi Biagio's students.
With a team of class like U23 Saudi Arabia, a goal against U23 Vietnam may be easy. But it was the pressure to win like that, the impatience that lost creativity in the playing style of the highly rated midfielders of U23 Saudi Arabia, or the pressure on the legs in the home team's attack.
An easy-to-see example to prove the impatience of the U23 Saudi Arabia players is that even when they had not served to start the match, 2 players from the home team rushed into the field of U23 Vietnam, forcing the referee to blow the whistle and ask this player to move to the new home field for the match to begin.
A similar problem also occurred when at the beginning of the second half when U23 Vietnam had not yet exercised the right to serve, 2 U23 Saudi Arabia players also rushed to the opponent's half.
The above example is just a typical example of the hurriedness and impatience to attack to find a goal of U23 Saudi Arabia. This is what has made them no longer have soberness and decisiveness in situations that can create a turning point.
25 shots but goals are just a complete zero for U23 Saudi Arabia. Conversely, with just a few attacks, U23 Vietnam scored for themselves thanks to Dinh Bac in the second half.
However, the failure and early stopping in the group stage of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship as the host team has many reasons. From playing style, personnel, to the fact that as the host team, not playing in the qualifying round will also make U23 Saudi Arabia not recognize their true strength compared to other opponents.
Of course, everything was decided after 3 group stage matches, U23 Saudi Arabia, from having many advantages in the tournament, soon said goodbye after the group stage, and the highlight was the 0-1 defeat to U23 Vietnam.
It's a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit.
