Nestled in a relatively easy group, the Japanese men’s football team is predicted to easily advance to the quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The first challenge for the Samurai warriors will be Paraguay, a team from South America with unimpressive strength and recent form. Let’s analyze the opening match of Group D in men’s football.

Expert Analysis of Japan vs Paraguay

The match between Japan and Paraguay in Group D of the men’s football at the Olympic Paris is considered an interesting clash between Asian and South American football. However, while the Japanese national team is a leading team in the region, regularly participating in top international tournaments, Paraguay’s position is more modest, as they are returning to men’s football at the Olympics for the first time since 2004.

In this tournament, the Japanese men’s football team has surprised by bringing a squad consisting of 100% U23 players. Coach Go Oiwa revealed that the JFA tried to negotiate with stars such as Takefusa Kubo, Wataru Endo, and Ito, but the preparation for the new season at their respective clubs made it difficult to call up the “U23+3” players. Nevertheless, the land of the rising sun is always highly regarded for its youth development, and even players from Japanese football academies have high quality and are fully confident in defeating Paraguay, a team with relatively poor performance in recent matches.

Analysis of Japan vs Paraguay match — Performance of Japan vs Paraguay

In terms of strength, the team from South America has made more careful additions compared to Japan, as coach Carlos Saguier called up 2 stars who recently participated in the 2024 Copa America and the national team, Fabrizio Peralta and veteran forward Fabian Balbuena, to participate in the Olympic arena. Being eliminated early in the top South American tournament will probably ensure that the physical foundation of these 2 players is not significantly affected.

Based on expert analysis, betting guide, Japan is expected to have a higher winning rate not only due to their strong squad but also because of their experience and familiarity with this arena. Paraguay has not tasted victory in the last 5 matches, making it difficult for them to quickly regain their form.

Overview of Past Encounters between Japan and Paraguay

Throughout history, the Japanese and Paraguayan teams have only met once at the Olympic level. That was in 2004 when Paraguay defeated Japan 4-3, but 10 years have passed, and this historical precedent may now only serve as a reference.

Japan vs Paraguay Olympic Odds

The Japanese national team has been in very good form recently with 4 wins in their last 5 preparation matches for the tournament. In contrast, Paraguay still seems to carry a poor record across all levels of the national team, losing 4 of their last 5 matches and drawing 1.

Japan -0/0.5: Perhaps with the inability to summon any aging stars, the strength of the Japanese Olympic team will be somewhat diminished. However, the team from the land of the rising sun is still being rated higher than Paraguay, according to the analysis from Japanese Paraguay odds experts.
Under goals: The Japanese team has kept a clean sheet in 3/5 recent matches and in the last 5 matches, only 2 goals or less were scored, while Paraguay’s attacking power is also not very impressive. It is likely that this will be a match ending with a difference of 1 to 2 goals in favor of Japan.

Information about the situation of the Japanese Olympic team and Paraguay

Both teams have their best lineup

Predicted lineup for the match between Japanese Olympic team and Paraguay

Japan (4-3-3): Kokubo, Handa, Takai, Kimura, Shibata, Fujita, Yamamoto, Saito, Mito, Fujio, Hirakawa.
Paraguay (4-3-3): Gonzalez Angel, Alexis, De Jesus, Gilberto, Leonardo, Diego, Ivan, Wilder, Peralta, Balbuena, Marcelo.

Japanese Paraguay odds: 2-0