Hajime Moriyasu, the coach of the Japanese national team, and his counterpart, Amir Jalnoi, the coach of Iran, announced the official formation of the two teams in the match that will bring them together today, Saturday, in the quarter-finals of the Asian Nations Cup currently being held in Qatar.
The Iranian national team qualified for the quarter-finals after achieving 3 victories in the group stage, where it defeated Palestine with a score of 4/1, Hong Kong with a clean goal, and the Emirates with a score of 2/1, while in the round of 16, it surpassed the Syrian team, the dark horse of the tournament, with a score of 5/3 on kicks. Penalty shootout after regular time ends in a 1/1 draw.
As for the Japanese national team, one of the strong candidates for the title of this edition, it qualified for the quarter-finals after achieving two victories against Vietnam, 4/2, and Indonesia, 3/1, while it lost to Iraq, with a score of 2/1, and defeated the Bahrain team in the round of 16, with a score of 3. /1.
Japan’s formation against Iran was as follows:
Goalkeeper: Zion Suzuki
Defense: Yuta Nakayama – Ko Itakura – Tomiyasu – Seiya Maikoma
Midfield: Morita – Wataru Endo – Takefusa Kubo
Attack: Mabena – Ayase Ueda – Ritsu Doan.
The official formation of the Iranian national team against Japan was as follows:
Goalkeeper: Alireza Beiranvand.
Defense line: Kanaani, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Mohammadi, Ramin Rezaian.
Midfield: Omid Ibrahim, Saman Quddus, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Mohibi
Offensive line: Sardar Azmoun.
The match also features a special kind of confrontation and a unique challenge between the duo, Ueda, the Japanese national team striker, who scored 4 goals in the tournament, and Mahdari Taremi, the Iranian player, who scored 3 goals, as they compete for the title of top scorer in the tournament.
In total, the Iranian national team and Japan met in 17 matches, where the Iranian national team won 8 matches, the Samaritan team won 6 matches, and 3 matches were tied. The Iranian national team scored 20 goals, while the Japanese national team scored 18 goals.
In the Asian Nations Cup, the matches of the two teams together in the tournament witness superiority in favor of the Japanese team, as it was able to achieve victory in two matches, and two matches were tied.
