"Qatar is for me the same as Italy or Brazil. The next game is always the most important in football," Japan coach Ivica Osim said on the eve of the Group B match, the only tournament game being played on Monday.

"I know the Qatar side knows about our team. Both sides have huge information but it will be decided in 90 minutes, not before or not after," added the 66-year-old tactician.

Qatar coach and fellow Bosnian Dzemaludin Musovic, Osim's assistant when they guided the former Yugoslavia to the 1990 World Cup quarterfinals, admitted Japan were "excellent in the quality of players."

Japan play "collective football," led by Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura, said Musovic.

"Japan on paper are the favourites in this competition. About the result, it will be open and nobody is sure how the game will be finished," he said.

Boosting a team of largely J-League players, Japan were slowly peaking just a week after the domestic competition shut down, according to goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, who helped Japan to Asian Cup triumphs in 2000 and 2004.

"We are training very well and we have good combinations and good teamwork so we are like challengers and have no pressure," he said.

Japan, springing back from a winless exit from the World Cup in Germany last year, are led up front by Frankfurt striker Naohiro Takahara with the back four held together by hardman defender Yuji Nakazawa.

Qatar, who have won the 2004 Gulf Cup and the Asian Games title in 2006, both at home, since Musovic took their helm, are struggling with injury problems which the coach attempted to play down Sunday.

They are defender Abdulmajid Wesam and Uruguyan-born ace striker Sebastian Soria, who is the core of Qatar's offense with former Manchester City winger Hussain Yasser.

Wesam was injured in a recent friendly in Thailand and Soria, 18, who gained Qatari citizenship last year, hurt his left leg in practice on Saturday.

Musovic said Wesam remained a doubt but Soria "will be ready for the game."

"We can find good solutions. We have about 20 good players. We will wait unitl the last minute to decide who will play," the coach said.

Qatari captain Alshammari Saad added: "We are not afraid of Japan. We are going to qualify for the second round despite the injuries."

Qatar have already lost midfielder Khalfan Ibrahim, the current Asian Player of the Year, to injury.

The Gulf state side are old hands at the Asian Cup finals, having qualified six times before, but they have never managed to go the extra yard.

Aside from 2000 when they made the quarterfinals, they have failed to get beyond the group rounds.

Asked about fighting a team under his old friend Musovic, Osim said, "There are no relations between a game and a private relationship.

"We are good friends but there is no connection there."