We said: Japan 3-0 China
Given their rivalry, China will hope to pose some sort of a threat to their more illustrious hosts. However, this should be one-way traffic for the regular World Cup participants, who will expect to record another clean sheet.
Read more.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 67.79%. A draw had a probability of 18.6% and a win for China had a probability of 13.59%.
The most likely scoreline for a Japan win was 2-0 with a probability of 11.01%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.88%) and 2-1 (9.77%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.77%), while for a China win it was 0-1 (3.94%). The actual scoreline of 7-0 was predicted with a 0.2% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Japan would win this match.