Vietnam will host Group D with other participants, Myanmar, Iran, Syria andSingapore.
The other 16 teams are divided into three groups - Group A with six teams willplay in Tajikistan; Group B will be hosted by the Democratic People’s Republicof Korea; and Group C games will be held in Palestine.
The three highest ranked women’s national teams from the last AFC Women’s AsianCup – Japan, Australia and China – have automatically qualified in theeight-team finals. The group winners of each of the four groups will qualifyfor the finals in Jordan.
Jordan as hostsalso got automatic qualification, but they have expressed interest in playingin the qualifiers. If they finish at the top of their qualifying group, therunners-up team will also advance to the final competition. The qualifiers willkick off on April 3.
The finals, which will be held from April 7 to 22, 2018, will also serve as theAsian qualifiers for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019. The five bestteams will book their tickets to Paris.
Vietnamese players will start practice under coach Mai Duc Chung after theLunar New Year. They will play their first match against Syria on April 5. Theother matches will be versus Singapore (April 7), Iran (April 9) and Myanmar(April 11).
Three year ago, the finals were held in HCM City and Vietnam failed to get aticket to Canada 2015 World Cup after losing 1-2 to Thailand.-VNA