China had a poor start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign after back-to-back defeats to Saudi Arabia and Australia. But wins over Indonesia and Bahrain have put them back in contention for qualification in Group C.
Branko Ivankovic and his team currently have 6 points, the same as Saudi Arabia and Australia, the opportunity to compete is still open. However, the match against Japan will probably be very difficult because they lost 0-7 to this opponent in the first leg.
Furthermore, there are still injury concerns for the Chinese team as Zhang Yuning, Wang Shangyuan and Li Lei are all doubtful for the match against Japan.
On the other side, Hajime Moriyasu's team is in good form, leading Group C, 7 points ahead of the teams below. Notably, the 19 goals scored by the Samurai Blue so far have come from 11 different players, and they have only conceded once. This will certainly be an extremely difficult challenge for the Chinese team.
Victory over the Chinese team will help them move closer to their eighth consecutive appearance at the FIFA World Cup Finals.
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