Japan welcome Oman to the Suita City Stadium on Thursday for the first game of the third round of AFC qualification for the 2022 World Cup.

The hosts are one of the big favourites to progress from Group B - along with Australia - but they will not have things as easy as they did in the second round.

Match preview

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Japan are looking to continue an impressive record of qualifying for the finals of every World Cup since making their debut at the 1998 tournament in France.

They are well-placed to do so, as top seeds of Group B, after topping their group in the previous round with a 100% record and a frankly ridiculous goal difference of +44.

A large portion of those goals came in the 14-0 demolition of Mongolia back in March, which goes down as the second biggest win in the Blue Samurai's history.

Hajime Moriyasu's side is a good blend of youth and experience, and his status as Olympic team coach - having led the country to fourth place at the Tokyo Games in early August - has also seen the 53-year-old give opportunities to some of the country's best young talent.

The squad has steadily evolved from the one that reached the round of 16 in Russia 2018 and will be aiming to progress even further at the 2022 event. First, though, they will have to get there.

Oman will be doing their best to stop them, but will be happy just to have reached this stage of qualification for the third time.

The Reds progressed by finishing as runner-up to Asian champions Qatar in Group E, winning an impressive six of their eight games, despite a shaky start where they fell behind to India in their opening game.

A change of manager during the qualifiers potentially helped them, as they parted ways with Erwin Koeman - brother of Barcelona manager Ronald - and appointed former Iran and Dinamo Zagreb head coach Branko Ivankovic.

The Croatian led Iran to just the third World Cup in their history, but was not liked by the Iranian government, who replaced him with a native coach and earned themselves a FIFA suspension for political interference.

Oman have won six of his nine games in charge and Ivankovic, pleased to be in a role where he is appreciated, will now look to see how far he can push this inexperienced side.

Team News

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Forward Yuya Osako - who is one of four J-League players in the squad, after signing for Vissel Kobe - will likely lead the line, having scored an incredible eight goals during the two games against Mongolia and Myanmar.

Maya Yoshida, a veteran of the 2014 and 2018 World Cup tournaments, continues to captain the team - whilst Yuto Nagatomo and Liverpool's Takumi Minamino are also familiar faces - but, with Takefusa Kubo and Ritsu Doan impressing at the Olympics, Moriyasu has an abundance of riches at his disposal.

New Arsenal signing Takehiro Tomiyasu also makes the cut and could feature at right-back in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The task of replacing Oman's greatest footballer of all time falls to Faiz Al-Rushaidi, having taken over as number one following the retirement of the iconic Ali Al-Habsi, whilst the country's hopes up front will hang on the shoulders of young forward Muhsen Al-Ghassani.

Ivankovic's squad is made up predominantly of domestic players, with Al-Markhiya's Jameel Al-Yahmadi the only foreign-based player in the team.

Japan possible starting lineup:
Gonda; Tomiyasu, Yoshida, Ueda, Nagatomo; Haraguchi, Minamino, Doan; Kubo, Osako, Furuhashi

Oman possible starting lineup:
Al-Rushaidi; Durbin, Al-Habsi, Al-Braiki, Al-Busaidi; Al-Khaldi, Fawaz, Al-Yahyaei, Al-Saadi; Al-Ghassani, Al-Muqbali

We say: Japan 3-0 Oman

Despite Oman's good run of form, they will be facing one of the heavyweights of Asian football in Japan. The visitors are likely to defend hard and compress the midfield, but the hosts should come away with a comfortable victory.

Written by
James Mackenzie

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