Maldives' women's football team readies for Asian Cup qualifiers

The group stage of the Women's Asian Cup qualifiers, set for next June, will see Maldives national women's football team competing in Group E as they vie for a spot in next year's tournament in Australia.

While only the top teams in all eight qualifying groups will advance to the tournament, Maldives will compete against Vietnam, Guam and the UAE.

Maldives' matches of the group stage playoffs will take place in Vietnam. According to the current schedule, Maldives will first face Vietnam on June 19 and play against Guam on July 2. They will play against the UAE on July 5.

Maldives also played against Vietnam in the 2021 qualifiers. While Vietnam scored 16 goals against Maldives, the match ended with zero goals for Maldives. This marked the biggest goal difference win for Vietnam, which has previously beat Maldives, Indonesia and Singapore with a 14-0 score.

ASEAN's powerhouse Vietnam has competed in the last nine Asian Cups since 1999. In 2023, the team also played in the World Cup for the first time.

Guam last played in the Asian Cup in 2023. The only teams that have not played in the Asian Cup so far are Maldives and the UAE.

Maldives has played seven friendly matches against the UAE so far. The last three matches were played in 2019 where two matches ended in draws while Maldives managed to win one of the four matches played in 2016.

Maldives played two friendly matches against India in the last qualifying matches. They lost 14-0 on December 30 and 11-1 on January 2.

The last time the national team won a match was in 2022 when they beat Seychelles 1-0 in their first friendly match of the year.