Thailand vs Japan

The record champions at a 13 000-seat ground

Al Shabab Stadium is the smallest of the eight venues in use, and this is the match the schedule has put there: Thailand against the team with more Asian Cup titles than any other. Japan have four. Nobody else in Saudi Arabia has more than three.

Small grounds have a way of changing the texture of a fixture like this. Japan have not won the tournament since 2011, which for the record champions is a longer gap than the one that separated their first title from their third.

Thailand come in with a third place from 1972 and seven appearances since that produced nothing comparable. A result here would be the biggest single thing they have taken from an Asian Cup in half a century.

The two records

This is a ninth Asian Cup for Thailand, whose best finish is third place (1972), against a eleventh for Japan, best winners (1992, 2000, 2004, 2011).