Viet Nam’s national U23 team will meet U23 Uzbekistan in a friendly match in HCM City today in preparation for the 2016 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers.

Viet Nam’s head coach Toshiya Miura said at a press conference yesterday that he would change his line-up for this match in order to find the best formation for the AFC event.

He also said that it will be a difficult match for Viet Nam because Uzbekistan are a strong team.

However, Viet Nam will try their best against Uzbekistan on home turf.

Miura added his team have recovered their strength after a hard training course so they will be fit following their match against U23 Indonesia at My Dinh Stadium on Monday.

“I hope my players don’t make the same mistakes they made against Indonesia. They will need to fight for the ball against Uzbekistan. My players come from different clubs so I have been building my own way of playing for the team,” Miura said through an interpreter.

Coach Bakhtiyor Ashurmatov of Uzbekistan said the match will be a good chance for his team to sharpen their skills ahead of the qualifying round.

Uzbekistan defeated Thailand 5-2 in the King’s Cup earlier this year.

Miura said he will announce his 23-man squad for the AFC on March 17 before flying to Thailand for another friendly on March 22.

Viet Nam have several injury problems at the moment after the long Tet holiday during which many of them were unable to train.

“I hope our players will make a swift recovery from their injuries. I don’t have any plans to replace them because I have enough players to fight,” said Miura.

The AFC qualifiers are scheduled for March 23-31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There will be 43 teams competing in 10 groups. The 10 group winners and the top five runners-up will qualify for the finals in Qatar early next year.

Source VNS