Australia might boast the home advantage here, but Japan are the in-form team, and a victory would guarantee them automatic progression to the World Cup 2022.
The fact they have been so strong defensively as of late, not conceding in four games is something that could prove to be a difference maker on Thursday.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Japan win with a probability of 44.43%. A win for Australia had a probability of 30.36% and a draw had a probability of 25.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Japan win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.79%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.13%) and 0-2 (7.48%). The likeliest Australia win was 1-0 (7.81%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.93%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 7.5% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Japan in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Japan.
