Japan get their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign underway on Thursday as they play host to Myanmar.

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The visitors to the Panasonic Stadium Suita have already come through one round to reach this stage of qualifying.

A penalty-shootout exit to Croatia in the last 16 hurt Samurai Blue, the feeling being that there was an opportunity to go deep in the competition.

Since then, though, they have been able to build on that progression, winning six of eight friendlies, the victories in question coming in succession since June.

Another triumph over Germany, this time on away territory, is included during that period, but scoring four goals against Peru, Turkey and Canada were impressive feats in themselves.

Hajime Moriyasu will be happy to get to competitive matters over the coming months, their opening World Cup qualifiers coming either side of January's Asian Cup.

From the perspective of Myanmar, they have already achieved their minimum goal of making it through to the group phase with success over Macau.