AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026 India Rival Watch: Vietnam

India will play against Vietnam in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 on March 4

The India women’s football team are gearing up to give their best showing at the upcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 edition. Up first for the Blue Tigresses will be a challenging clash against Vietnam in the opening match of the group stages, with India needing to prepare for what should be a really tough match against one of Asia’s best.

The Vietnam women’s football team comfortably qualified for the Women’s Asian Cup after dominating their opponents in the group stages. They will be fighting to win their group, which also contains Japan and Chinese Taipei, and the Indian players can expect a really tough clash against the highly energetic Vietnamese side.

Vietnam are currently ranked in the 36th position in the FIFA Women’s Football rankings and have a lot of experience of playing in this tournament. They are pushing to potentially going all the way in the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup and will look to kick-start their campaign with a dominant win over the Indian side.

Now, we look at what can be expected from the Vietnam women’s national team.

About the team

The Vietnam women’s national football team started operating in the 1990s, a period when women’s football started gaining more traction in the country. It was in 1997 when the Vietnam women’s football team played their first international match, a 1-0 loss to Malaysia, and they haven’t looked back ever since.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Vietnam women’s football team have taken major steps upwards to establish themselves as one of the best in Asian football. They have qualified for every single one of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup editions since 1999 and even hosted the tournament twice (in 2008 and 2014).

Vietnam’s best showing at an AFC Women’s Asian Cup was in the 2022 edition, when they reached the quarterfinals! The Golden Star Women Warriors have also qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup once, which happened in the most recent edition in 2023 – when they were eliminated from the group stages.

The Vietnam women’s team have won the ASEAN Women’s Championship (now known as MSIG Serenity Cup) three times, with the most recent one coming in 2019. They’ve also won eight gold medals at the SEA games and finished in fourth place in the football category for the 2014 Asian Games!

Recent performances

The Vietnam women’s football team have already played four friendly matches in preparation for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, as they want their players to be at their sharpest for the tournament.

However, the Golden Star Women Warriors have lost three of their four friendlies, suffering heavy defeats to Uzbekistan and China – but even defeating the former side in a friendly.

In 2025, the Vietnam women’s football team played in a range of tournaments and played 23 games – hick also included friendly matches against multiple Japanese university teams! They won 15 of their matches, picking up huge wins over Maldives, UAE and Guam in the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers.

They finished in third place in the ASEAN Women’s Championship and also got the silver medal in the 2025 SEA Games!

The coach

The Vietnam women’s national team is the experienced Mai Duc Chung, who is widely considered as a bonified legend in the Vietnamese football scene. He is actually currently enjoying his fifth term as the Vietnam women’s national team, and even worked with the Vietnamese men’s youth teams head coach in the past.

The 74-year-old coach has been coaching since the late 1990s and has even worked as an assistant manager role for the Vietnam men’s national team in the past. He has guided the Golden Star Women Warriors to winning five SEA Gold Medal titles, as well as being the coach responsible for helping them qualify for their first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup (in 2022).

Chung has played a pivotal role in the growth and evolution of the Vietnam women’s football scene over the decades and is eager to help them strongly compete in the upcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup. The 74-year-old encourages an exciting brand of attacking football, shaping his side to have a strong defensive structure and then torment opponents with their fast-paced counter-attacking moves.

Considering that the Golden Star Women Warriors scored 65 goals in their 25 matches in 2025, that itself is proof of how he encourages his players to play on the front-foot. Chung likes his players to work their way using the wide areas to create chances, being quick on the transitions and link-up with smart moves to outwit their opponents.

The 74-year-old might not be the youngest coach anymore, but he shows a lot of vigor in motivating his players and tactically shaping them up strongly to torment their opponents. He’ll hope they can produce thrilling attacking football in the upcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup and do better than their quarterfinals finish last time around.

Players to watchout

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy

Vietnam winger Nguyen Tai Bich Thuy has been a tormenting figure for their opponents over recent years and has a lot of experience in her side as well. The 31-year-old winger has 20 goals in 81 appearances for the Golden Star Women Warriors and was able to get amongst the goal for a number of matches in 2025 for them.

Bich Thuy is a really speedy winger, who is capable of troubling the defenders with her rapid movement in the wide areas to help usher her side forward to the danger zones.

She is also particularly impressive when it comes to finishing off chances, as proven in her impressive performances for Vietnam over the last few years. Nguyen will look to be a thorn for her opposition players in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, where she will look to unleash her best performances.

The 31-year-old could be a real unpredictable threat because of her pace and ability to sniff out chances, which means defenders must pay special attention to keep her neutralize or threaten to see the Vietnamese winger run riot on them.

Pham Hai Yen

Phai Hai Yen has been an extremely troublesome forward for the Vietnam women’s football team over the last few years, being a reliable outlet for goals since 2011. In 98 appearances for the Golden Star Women Warriors, Pham has scored 57 goals and is the third-highest goal scorer for her national team’s history.

The 31-year-old striker can be particularly dangerous when it comes to slipping past her marker in the opposition final third and sneak her way into the danger areas.

She is an efficient goalscorer, being able to finish off chances from a variety of positions and being ruthless with her shooting inside the box. Hai Yen will be looking to be a thorn for the Indian defenders in 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup opener, using her predatory instincts to trouble their defenders.

The 31-year-old has to be ruthless in taking up her chances perfectly to be able to guide her side to a string of wins in the Women’s Asian Cup

What to expect?

After being revitalized with their promising display in the 2022 edition, Vietnam will go with an all-guns-blazing approach for the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup. They will look to set themselves up nicely with a commanding win over India, who can expect a pretty feisty challenge against the Golden Star Women Warriors in the opening game.

The Vietnamese side are likely to play on the front foot, using their smart link-up play and speedy forwards to romp into the key areas. They will look to use their wide areas to create chances, stretching the opposition backline to help create more room to operate for their central players in the final third.

Vietnam will not be taking their opponents lightly at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, which is why they can be expected to be extremely sharp in the matches. India will need to be fearless and sturdy to be able to withstand or counter the Vietnamese onslaught, because the Golden Star Women Warriors will definitely look to thwart them with some clinical attacking football.

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