Syria national team coach Hector Cuper. (Source: AFC)

In recent days, the Syrian team has been actively preparing for a friendly match with the Vietnamese team on June 20 at Thien Truong Stadium (Nam Dinh).

Despite the absence of a few stars, the West Asian team is still formidable. They are ranked 90th in the world, 5 places higher than the Vietnamese team.

According to coach Hector Cuper, the Syrian team initially planned to participate in the Four Nations friendly tournament with Ivory Coast, Benin and Kuwait.

However, because the two African opponents are busy participating in the CAN 2023 qualifiers, they cannot send their strongest squad.

Therefore, the Syrian team decided to choose the Vietnamese team to play a friendly match.

Sharing on the Syrian Football Federation's homepage, coach Hector Cuper said: "The FIFA Days in June are often difficult to choose opponents. Because many teams do not like to compete because they want to rest after a long season in Europe.

Even the Syrian national team could not call up its strongest squad. In addition to injuries, we also lost players to the Syrian U23 team participating in the West Asian U23 tournament.

Anyway, I think this is a positive thing. Besides creating a stable lineup, I also want to experiment with new faces.

Because Benin and Ivory Coast are awarded points based on their performance in the 2023 CAN qualifiers, friendly matches against these two teams are also not counted in the FIFA rankings.

Therefore, we decided to play only one match during the FIFA Days in June against the Vietnamese team. In the next match, I will consider the level of integration and understanding of the players on the field. We only have a short time to prepare for this match."

The match between Vietnam and Syria will take place at 7:30 p.m. on June 20.