Japan U23 team set for ‘challenging’ qualifiers in Bahrain

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Japan’s under-23 national team head coach Go Oiwa is getting ready for a challenging campaign in this week’s Group D qualifiers in Bahrain for the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2024.

The Japanese will be one of four teams in the Kingdom competing in this qualification group, which also includes Pakistan, Palestine and hosts Bahrain.

“We will do our best to be well prepared for all the matches in the short, intensive three-match series in Bahrain,” said Oiwa of his team, who are considered to be group favourites and who won the bronze medals at last year’s edition of the AFC U23 Asian Cup held in Uzbekistan.

The games kick off on Wednesday, with Bahrain facing Palestine at 6.30pm followed by Japan playing Pakistan at 9.30pm.

It will be the first of three match days at Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club in Arad. Oiwa highlighted the importance of their opening fixture against their Pakistani counterparts.

“In order to build ourselves a positive momentum ahead of the second and third matches, we want to focus all of our effort on the opening match against Pakistan,” he said.

The Japanese tactician added that his squad will be ready for all the challenges they will face in the competition.

“When comparing our opponents, there aren’t many that have been active in the same age bracket as we have, which makes it challenging to analyse their strategy,” he said.

“As a result, I believe we may encounter tactics that are stronger or extremely different from what we anticipated, so it will be crucial to maintain a safe margin for error and stay alerted from the minute we enter the pitch.

“From our analysis, we are aware that we are up against very tough opponents. We want to get ready so that we can cope with our opponents and perform at our peak in challenging circumstances.”

There are 11 groups in all in the qualifiers, being supervised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), with one featuring just three teams.

Each group is holding their matches at a centralised venue.

Following a single round-robin, the 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams qualify for next year’s AFC U23 Asian Cup, which will be held in Doha.

They join tournament hosts Qatar, who have received automatic qualification, to form a final cast of 16 in the competition, which is to be played between 15 April and 3 May, 2024.

The Bahraini under-23s are coached by Dario Basic from Croatia. The Bahrain Football Association have yet to announce Basic’s final squad list for the upcoming games.