In the early morning of October 8, Beijing time, the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia ushered in a focus battle, japan lost 0-1 away to Saudi Arabia, suffered the second defeat, continuing the official game away from the Saudi team's shameful record.

Since 1998, Japan has participated in the World Cup finals for six consecutive times, ranking second in Asia after South Korea. In this round of 12, Japan was once the world's highest-ranked Asian team, and after losing to Oman and defeating China in the first two rounds, the ranking was surpassed by Iran and slipped to the second place in Asia.
Japan is the Asian 4th champion, Saudi Arabia is the 3rd Asian champion, and has also reached the World Cup finals 5 times. In the first two rounds of the Round of 12, Saudi Arabia won consecutive victories over Vietnam and Oman, accumulating 6 points and ranking second in the group with 3 goal differences.
In the opening 7th minute, a long-range shot by Shibasaki was saved by Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Orvez. In the 24th minute, Takuma Asano's cross from the right was saved by Takumi Minamino's header. On 29 minutes, Kamada Sent a straight plug, and Daisuke's one-handed shot was saved.
In the second half, after the Japanese team missed a series of good opportunities, the Saudi team suddenly made a force. In the 70th minute, the Japanese midfielder made a mistake in returning the pass, and the No. 9 striker Abdullah Hamdan quickly inserted a single knife, and finally pushed a foot into the net under the defensive interference, helping saudi arabia take a 1-0 lead.
In the end, the Saudi team relied on Abdullah Hamdan's goal to beat Japan 1-0 to win three consecutive games, becoming the second team to start the three consecutive wins in the round of 12, and the first team was Iran in the other group.
This loss allowed Japan to continue the humiliating record of 15 years of official away defeat to Saudi Arabia, from 2006 to the present suffered three consecutive defeats, the score is 0-1 loss.
What made the Japanese team even more hit was that it only scored 3 points in the 3 rounds, which made the Japanese team have no chance to rise to the top two of the group, and the impact on the World Cup prospects cast a shadow. After the game, the Japanese players covered their faces and were emotionally lost, and the points were also equalized by the national football team, and they also accumulated 3 points.