On the third day of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, two contenders for the title will start their campaign under different conditions.

Japan and Iran the two top-ranked teams in Asia will start against Vietnam and Palestine respectively.

For the Japanese, who are everyone’s favorite to lift the trophy, it is a difficult start against a stubborn team in Vietnam, however, the odds of losing even a point are quite low as Japan is in top form in years.

Palestine is another tough team to beat. The goalkeeper and the defense line of Team Melli will have a comfortable shift but the midfield and the forward line will have to do all the work to break the stubborn Palestine defense. The 99th-ranked team in the FIFA Ranking can frustrate the Iranians as they have already done to a few teams before.

With Sardar Azmoun being a late joiner to the squad in Doha, he may start the match on the bench while Taremi will have Asadi or Moghanlou partnering him in the attack. Jahanbakhsh will occupy the right wing and Mohebbi will be pushing from behind the trio. Saman Ghoddos will be the maestro of the midfield. His performance is the key to the success of the team. Gholizadeh has a good chance of partnering with Ghoddos, while Ezatollahi will operate as the holding midfielder.

the status of Ramin Rezaeian’s injury is not clear yet. He would have been ideal for a match like this where the opposition packs its defenses in two layers.

The slight injury to Beiranvand is still a worry, but with Hosseini and Nizmand, there should not be any alarms as both are capable of covering for Ali Beiranvand in case he is unable to start.

Earlier in the day UAE meets Hong Kong in the same group at Khalifa International stadium