The third round of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup kicks off this week, and while Japan’s chances of missing out on a place at the expanded 48-team tournament are vanishingly slim, it will be keen to avoid similar slipups to those experienced in its opening games at this qualifying stage for the last two FIFA showpieces.
The 1st round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers will feature a match between the national teams of Japan and China on September 5, 2024. The favourite is obvious, but the guests will try to surprise their neighbour.
“The Samurai Blue” is one of the best teams in all of Asia. Suffice it to say that the team has been playing at every single World Cup since 1998, and has reached the play-offs on numerous occasions, including 2 previous ones. “The Dragon Team” has played at the World Cup only once, in 2002, losing all matches with a total score of 0-9.
The difference in class was also evident at the Winter Asian Cup. The Chinese team did not score a single goal there: there happened a couple of goalless draws in the confrontations with Tajikistan and Lebanon, a 0-1 result in the game against Qatar (and it was eliminated after the group stage). Moriyasu’s wards confidently advanced from the group, beat Bahrain with a 3-1 score, but stumbled in the meeting against Iran in the quarter-finals – they lost due to a penalty goal in the 6th minute of added time.
“The Samurai” had no problems with the previous round of qualification, except for the cancellation of the trip to the DPRK. As a result, there were 6 wins in 6 matches with a total score of 24-0. As for the Chinese team, it was headed by Branko Ivankovic in February, and took 5 points in 4 matches, mainly in the struggle with Singapore (there was also a home draw with Thailand and a defeat made by South Korea). As a result, the team overtook the Thais in the dispute for 2nd place only on additional parameters.
Japan (possible line-up): Osako – Machida, Itakura, Tomiyasu – Nakamura, Minamino, Kubo, Endo, Tanaka, Doan – Ueda.
China (possible line-up): Wang Dalei – Liu Yang, Zhu Chenjie, Browning, Yang Zexiang – Xie Wenneng, Wang Shangyuan, Jiang Shenglong, Xu Haoyang – Behram Abduweli, Fernandinho.
“The Celestial Empire” has won only 1, the very first head-to-head match back in 1980. And the team tied their home game in 2022 after 4 defeats in a row in the previous qualifying round.
“The Samurai” are much stronger and will play on the native field. We bet on the hosts’ success with “a -2.0 goal handicap” (odd: 1.8).
The site is informational and does not provide an opportunity to participate in gambling, place bets or receive winnings. All site materials are informational. The site does not have functions for participating in gambling, placing bets or receiving winnings.
If you feel that you or someone around you may have a problem with gambling, remember that you can always ask for help.
