Oman will be looking to make a winning start to their AFC World Cup qualifying campaign when welcome Chinese Taipei at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Thursday.

The teams head into this one off the back of contrasting results last time out, but neither of them will need any added motivation to be at their best here.

Match preview

Oman were on the receiving end of a comprehensive 4-0 defeat against the United States of America in a friendly meeting at Allianz Field on September 13.

Branko Ivankovic's men fell behind to Folarin Balogun's early opener before second-half strikes from Brenden Aaronson, Ricardo Pepi and a Khaled Al Breiki own goal sealed the deal.

That was a first defeat in five outings across all competitions for the Reds since they lost 3-0 to Uzbekistan in the group stage of the CAFA Cup in June.

Lying in store next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who were beaten in both of the previous two editions of this fixture by a combined score of 9-2.

Currently on a run of four wins and a draw from their last five matches on the road, Thursday's hosts are huge favourites to emerge victorious in this one.

Chinese Taipei made it past the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifiers thanks to a 3-0 win over East Timor at the National Stadium on October 17.

Gary White's men went into the interval with the job all but done thanks to first-half strikes from Yu Chia-huang, Yen-shu Wu and Samuel Kouame.

The Blues Wings are now undefeated in six of their last seven outings, which certainly makes for good reading ahead of the start of their World Cup journey.

With three wins picked up from four away matches leading up to Thursday's contest, the visitors have been impressive on the road of late and will make the journey to Muscat with the wind in their sails.

Team News

Once again, Oman head coach Branko Ivankovic has unsurprisingly called up a full squad of home-based players, just as he did during the last international break.

Skipper Harib Al-Saadi will be heavily relied upon by the hosts as he prepares to rack up his 57th international appearance, which is the second-most of any active player.

Samuel Kouame has been directly involved in at least one goal in each of his last three matches for Chinese Taipei, making him one to keep an eye on.

Chun-Ching Wu got himself back on the scoresheet in his most recent outing at club level, and he will be looking to pick up where he left off.

Oman possible starting lineup:
Al-Rushaidi; Al-Yahmadi, Al-Khamisi, Al-Braiki, Al-Kaabi; Fawaz, Al-Saadi, Al-Adawi, Saleh; Al-Yahyaei, Al-Sabhi

Chinese Taipei possible starting lineup:
Wen-Chieh; Fong, Huang, Chen, Wang; Wen, Wu; Yao-hsing, Wu, Yu; Kouame

We say: Oman 3-1 Chinese Taipei

Despite heading into this one currently on a run of consecutive wins, Chinese Taipei are faced with an uphill task of going head-to-head with Oman. We are backing the hosts to come out on top at the sound of the final whistle.


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