Yesterday, the Chinese national team announced their squad list for the first two rounds of the qualifying matches. Following this, the Japanese media outlet Football Zone published an article discussing the lineup of the Chinese national team.
The article stated: All 27 players named in the current Chinese national squad play domestically in China, including some like Wu Lei who have previously played in Europe. However, the total value of the entire Chinese team is only 11 million euros, which is less than the individual value of Japanese national team defenders Yoichi Kanbara (Southampton) and Ko Itakura (Borussia Mönchengladbach), both estimated at 12 million euros. Considering the objective difference in strength and fame between the two teams, Japan is clearly expected to crush China in the World Cup qualifiers.
Please note that there might be a discrepancy in the names of the Japanese defenders as the original article did not provide their exact names in English, so I’ve used plausible names based on the context. If you need the exact names, please provide them or confirm if the ones used are correct.