Chinese media comments on Vietnam's performance against Malaysia

The 163 newspaper provided an honest assessment of the U17 Vietnam players' performance in their victory over Malaysia.

U17 Vietnam has maintained an impressive winning streak in the 2026 U17 Asian qualifiers with a convincing win against Malaysia in the final round. This result also helped the team led by Coach Cristiano Roland secure their spot in the 2026 U17 Asian Championship finals.

Witnessing the commendable performance of U17 Vietnam throughout the qualifying campaign, the 163 Chinese outlet praised the young Vietnamese players and affirmed that the team’s qualification to the finals is well deserved.

Specifically, 163 stated: "In Group C, the youth teams of Vietnam and Malaysia stand out from the rest. After four matches, both have won all games and earned 12 points each, but Vietnam temporarily leads due to a superior goal difference of 6 goals. Therefore, in the last match, Vietnam only needed a draw to keep the top spot, while Malaysia had to win to advance.

In this decisive encounter, Vietnam completely dominated both offensively and defensively. They took a 2-0 lead by halftime, then added two more goals in the second half to close out a convincing 4-0 victory. Winning all 5 matches, scoring 30 goals without conceding any, Vietnam excellently topped Group C."

Following impressive results at the 2025 U17 Asian Championship earlier this year, Coach Cristiano Roland likely gained valuable lessons to help improve the players’ skills and match experience.

This was clearly reflected in the 5 qualifying matches, where U17 Vietnam barely allowed opponents any chance to play. They successively crushed Singapore (6-0), Northern Mariana Islands (14-0), Hong Kong (2-0), Macau (4-0), and most recently Malaysia (4-0), finishing the qualifiers top of Group C with a ticket to the finals early next year.

Additionally, with 30 goals scored and none conceded, U17 Vietnam is the second-best performing team in this qualifying campaign, behind U17 China, who scored 42 goals and also kept a clean sheet throughout.

U17 Vietnam is one of four Southeast Asian representatives at the 2026 U17 Asian Championship finals, alongside Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar.