SHANGHAI, January 3, 2018 (WAFA) – The Palestine National under-23 Football team Wednesday announced a friendly match with Vietnam prior to the official launch of the 2018 Asian Football Confideration U-23 Championships in China on January 9.  

Team captain Mahmoud Abu Warda said all the players are doing everything they can to give a good performance in this important continental tournament and to portray a good image of Palestinian football and its development in the past years.

The Palestine national under-23 football team qualified for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, which is their first continental tournament ever.

Abu Warda said the team is being trained by Coach Ayman Sanduka and pointed out that the training camps and friendly matches; two with the Omani team and one with the Qatari team in Oman and Qatar had a positive impact on the team both technically and physically.

Abu Warda said the friendly match against the Vietnamese national team is also expected to improve the performance of our team before the official start of the tournament on Tuesday.

He said that the goal is to qualify for the second round of the continental championship despite having to compete against strong teams.    

Palestine is set to play with Japan on January 10, with Korea on the 13 and Thailand on the 16 of January, 2018 and will qualify for the second round if ranks first or second in their group.

M.H.