HONG KONG – Japan can take a major step towards the 2026 World Cup finals next week if they can negotiate away tests in Indonesia and China within the space of five days.

Son Heung-min’s South Korea will also look to move closer to a place in the showpiece event in North America as they travel to Kuwait on November 14 and then face Palestine in Jordan on November 19.

Meanwhile, Hervé Renard, who engineered a famous victory over eventual champions Argentina at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, takes charge of Saudi Arabia for the first time since returning to the job.

But the spotlight will be on a crowd estimated at 78,000, who will fill Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in the hope of seeing hosts world number 130 pull off a shocker against world number 15 Japan on November 15 .

Hajime Moriyasu’s Samurai Blue will next face another hostile crowd when they travel to Xiamen on November 19 to take on world number 92 China.

“If you look at the Fifa rankings and the World Cup qualifying matches so far, you might think the advantage is with Japan,” Moriyasu said.

“But we are playing both games away and I think it will be difficult.”

As the third Asian qualifying round nears the halfway point, Japan sits five points clear at the top of Group C over Australia and Saudi Arabia, who will face off on November 14.

The top two in each of the three groups advance directly to the World Cup.

China and Indonesia occupy the final two spots in Group C but are not out of contention, as the teams finishing third and fourth will advance to another qualifying stage.

Moriyasu has called up Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi for the first time in a year as first-choice striker Ayase Ueda is injured.

Furuhashi has been prolific since joining the Glasgow club in 2021 but has been used sparingly by Moriyasu, who left him out of his squads for the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Asian Cup.

The 29-year-old joins Celtic teammates Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate in the Japan squad.

Furuhashi, who was linked with a move to English champions Manchester City over the summer, has scored six goals in 16 games for the Scottish Premiership leaders in all competitions this season.