After closing the group stage of the 2026 Asian Futsal Championship finals with second place in Group B, the Vietnamese futsal team qualified for the quarterfinals in a positive spirit. Head coach Diego Giustozzi highly appreciated the progress of the whole team and expressed his belief that his students can create a special mark at this year's tournament.
Looking back at the group stage journey, the Argentine strategist believes that the Vietnamese futsal team has clearly improved both in individual form and collective play. "I am very satisfied with what the team has shown in the group stage. Individual form as well as collective play have improved with each match. Especially in today's match, I think we deserved to win and in fact played better than the opponent. The important thing is that the team entered the quarter-finals in a very positive state," coach Diego Giustozzi shared.
In the quarter-finals, Vietnam futsal can face Indonesia or Iraq. According to coach Giustozzi, these are both challenging opponents but with different characteristics. "Indonesia is an Southeast Asian team, with a style and approach to the match quite similar to us, while Iraq is a completely different opponent with its own playing style. Indonesia also has the home advantage and the large cheers of the audience. However, when they entered the quarter-finals, all 8 teams are the strongest teams in Asia," he assessed.
The Argentine coach also affirmed that he does not put much emphasis on choosing opponents. He said: "I don't want to choose opponents. The most important thing right now is the team's feeling after today's match, and that's a very good feeling. I am really satisfied with the performance of the players.
Assessing the playing style of the Vietnamese futsal team at the tournament, coach Diego Giustozzi emphasized the balance between defense and attack. "The team is playing beautiful futsal. We deserved to win against Kuwait, Lebanon and also in the recent match. The whole team is ready for the quarter-finals," he said.
Not hiding his ambition to go far, the head coach of the Vietnamese futsal team said that the team's goal is not to stop in the quarter-finals: "We want to continue to win to reach the semi-finals and make history. I am very proud of the players. This is a very young team, out of 14 players, up to 8 are participating in the AFC tournament for the first time, many players are only 20-21 years old. I believe this team can make a special mark at this year's tournament".
