U23 China made history by eliminating U23 Uzbekistan with a score of 4-2 after a penalty shootout, to win a ticket to the semi-finals of the AFC U23 Championship for the first time. In this year's tournament, coach Antonio Puche's team only scored 1 goal but has a very solid defense, without conceding any goals.
Conversely, U23 Vietnam has won all 4 matches since the beginning of the tournament, successively defeating U23 Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. The team has scored 8 goals, convincing playing style and is considered to have many opportunities to win the AFC U23 Championship this year.
The upcoming semi-final marks the first time U23 Vietnam has met U23 China at the AFC U23 Championship. “U23 China will face challenges from U23 Vietnam, the opponent that China wants to meet most in the semi-finals. Since emerging at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, Vietnam has made rapid progress in youth training in recent years. Many players participating in this tournament have also worn the national team jersey such as Nguyen Dinh Bac, Khuat Van Khang, Nguyen Thai Son...
U23 Vietnam's playing style focuses on personal technique and very delicate short passes. In this aspect, U23 Vietnam performed better than the opponent of U23 China in the group stage, Thailand. Moreover, their tactical approach from youth teams to their national team is consistent.
Besides, the fighting spirit of U23 Vietnam is very strong and they are extremely resilient. Whether they are led or need to chase, they often show great fighting spirit. These are the qualities that the U23 Chinese players need to pay close attention to in the match," Chinese media commented.
Why does U23 China want to meet U23 Vietnam?
According to Chinese media, U23 Vietnam is the opponent they want to meet in the semi-finals, for many reasons.
Firstly, psychologically, U23 China will not feel as much pressure as when facing U23 Japan, U23 Korea or U23 Uzbekistan.
Second, in terms of physical strength and physique, China has a clear advantage, especially in attack. China can take advantage of this significant advantage to find goals from set pieces and corner kicks, especially when both of Vietnam's goals conceded in the most recent match were from headers from the opponent.
Finally, the U22/U23 Chinese and Vietnamese teams have met many times in the past two years, so they are quite familiar with each other. At the Yancheng International Friendly Tournament in March 2025, U22 China drew with U22 Vietnam 1-1, despite playing with one less player in the final minutes of the match.
By November 2025, U22 Vietnam had defeated U22 China 1-0 at the Panda Cup. “Of course, in both matches, the squad of U22 China was not the strongest.
However, in previous matches, China's tactics were not at all conservative. Now, Antonio Puche has found the best tactics for U23 China, and people believe that a solid defense U23 China can still keep a clean sheet against Vietnam," Chinese media commented.
The U23 China vs U23 Vietnam semi-final match will take place at 10:30 PM on January 20th.
