U23 Japan - U23 Uzbekistan: Arch-rivals

Both Japan and Uzbekistan have won the AFC U23 Championship once. Whoever wins the final will become the first team to win the AFC U23 Championship twice.

In terms of form, Uzbekistan is rated higher than Japan. The Central Asian team entered the final with extremely convincing form. They won all their matches and scored 14 goals, without conceding any.

Meanwhile, Japan's form is not as good. But the further they go, the more explosive they play.

The performance of coach Go Oiwa and his team in the group stage was "unconvincing". They only really played well when they entered the knockout round. Here, Japan brought "torture" to their opponents. They made Qatar and Iraq unable to raise their heads with varied, intense attacks and consecutive shots. The current U23 Japan is a very different version compared to the U23 Japan in the group stage. The more they play, the more they excel and gather all the elements to win the championship.

One side is getting more and more explosive, the other side has maintained stability since the beginning of the campaign, both showing that they are the most worthy opponents of each other in the battle for the throne.

Japan came to this tournament with a very high-quality squad. The young team from the Land of the Rising Sun possesses a squad that is considered the second most valuable at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship after Uzbekistan itself.

Most of the stars of the "Blue Samurai Warriors" have had top-level football experience while playing in the J-League and some others have played for clubs in Europe.

On the eve of the championship match, Uzbekistan received very bad news about their squad. Accordingly, the current runner-up of the continent will be without the services of three key players, Khusanov, Erkinov and Fayzullaev, all three stars must return to their home clubs according to the agreement. Khusanov is playing for Lens Club in the French National Championship (Ligue 1), Fayzullaev is on the payroll of Russian team CSKA Moscow, and Erkinov plays for Al Wahda of the UAE. Of the 14 goals scored so far, Erkinov has contributed to more than half and is the brightest star of the team up to now.

At the national team level, Japanese football can overwhelm Uzbekistan. However, at the U23 level, Uzbekistan has a more impressive head-to-head record against Japan. Statistics show that in the last 4 matches, U23 Uzbekistan won 3 and lost only 1 match against U23 Japan.

The final match between U23 Japan and U23 Uzbekistan will take place at 10:30 p.m. on May 3 at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium (Al Rayyan, Qatar). The match promises to be very exciting and dramatic as both teams are showing impressive form in this year's tournament.

Expected starting lineup of the 2 teams:

Japan U23: Kokubo, Sekine, Ohata, Kimura, Takai, Kirakawa, Fujita, Araki, Yamada, Matsuki, Hosoya

U23 Uzbekistan: Nematov, Yuldoshev, Mirsaidov, Hamraliev, Jaloliddinov, Erkinov, Holmatov, Abdirahmatov, Boriyev, Norchaev, Khoshimov