From what happened, I seriously could only give hope to Japan, as the four remaining AFC teams were out.
In all of them, Japan perhaps, surprisingly, has the brightest chance because Japan topped the group with four points, ahead of Senegal, Colombia and already-eliminated Poland. It seems like Japan is the only team that has truly learnt from this story:
Don’t ask me why I post the video. In January, following a report from Bleacher, I decided to seek what the hell was ongoing in Asia, and interestingly, this has become a phenomenon — the Vietnamese phenomenon.
2018 AFC U-23 Championship - Wikipedia
This team, the U-23 Vietnam, considered to be seriously pathetic and perhaps, expected to be eliminated early and served as point basket; stunned predictions by going to the Final of the tournament. As this tournament served as perpetration squad for 2019 Asian Cup (Vietnam didn’t go to World Cup), this was a surprise for me; and more irony was how Vietnam beat Qatar, as Qatar’s U-23 squad also served as feeder for 2022 World Cup in their home.
Japan seemed to be the most interested one because they also sent their squad for the tournament (eliminated by Uzbekistan, another country didn’t qualify for 2018 World Cup and later champions in U-23 Asian Cup). They learnt from Vietnam’s experience, and their toughness to qualify to the Final, to manage a stunning performance in the World Cup right now.
I have no idea until when I found Japan’s performance. Perhaps, in the last dead tone, Iran and South Korea had used Vietnam’s success to stun Portugal and Germany, although neither could qualify.
I hope if Japan could keep up this spirit that the Vietnamese did, the Japanese could manage to the Final of the World Cup, even I had no idea.