Match Report
Japan U23 went into the game 2nd in the table on 6 points; Uzbekistan U23 sat 1st on 9 — a 3-point gap. Against a league average of 1.31 goals per team per game, Japan U23 ran at 1 scored and 0.33 conceded, Uzbekistan U23 at 3.33 and 0.
Uzbekistan U23 arrived on a run of six straight wins, having scored in 8 consecutive games.
The venue was Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, with room for 40,740 spectators. M. Bonyadifar took charge of the match — our records show 93 games refereed with an average of 1.1 yellow cards per game. Half-time and full-time told different stories: it was 0-0 at the break, before 1 more goal closed it at 1-0.