Japan vs. China: preview and betting tips

Thursday’s football programme will see two Asian superpowers clash in the World Cup qualifiers. China will fly to Japan to keep their hopes of qualifying for the barrage alive. Will they succeed?

Japan are doing well in qualifying, winning their last three matches and jumping to second place in the table behind Saudi Arabia. But it must not rest on its laurels, with Australia just one point behind in third.

China is considerably worse off, having won only one of its six matches (and that against a nil-nil Vietnam) and is only fifth. It is six points behind the barrage position with four rounds to go.

The Japanese rely on a pair of goal scorers. Liverpool’s Takumi Minamino has scored nine times in qualifying , as has Vissel Kobe star Yuya Osako. Without them, Japan would have a hard time getting into the tournament.

If the home team is down to two players, the away team is down to one. Wu Lei has already scored 12 goals in qualifying. The second top scorer (Xu Yang) has only scored five times.

Japan boast a good defence, keeping a clean sheet in three of their last five games, and conceding a single goal in the other two.

That doesn’t play into the hands of China, who are on fire defensively. In the last six games, they have scored a total of eleven goals.

Given China’s poor defensive performance, I think Japan will win by at least two goals.