In one of Bahrain's finest-ever results, Dragan Talajic led his side to a 1-0 win on the Gold Coast, with Harry Souttar's late own goal separating the sides.

Bahrain had lost all four previous meetings between the two, and Australia were on a run of 11 wins in 13 games, illustrating how much of a surprise the full-time result was.

Talajic may wish that the qualifying phase could end here, with Bahrain up in an automatic qualification spot for the 2026 World Cup, but sadly for them, there are still nine more matches to navigate.

Those unlikely points should give Bahrain a huge advantage in the race for fourth behind Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia in this group though.

A fourth-place finish will advance one of the minnow nations in this section to the final group phase, which could involve many nations who have never reached the finals.

Indonesia and China are the other sides Bahrain are likely going to be challenging with for a top-four place, and even though the former won a surprise point away to Saudi Arabia last week, the win in Australia should give Talajic's men the upper hand going forward.

Their next test will be an arduous one though, as Japan come into this match on the back of inflicting a 7-0 thrashing on China.

Japan are the only team Bahrain have lost against in their last eight matches, going out to their upcoming opponents in the round of 16 of the Asian Cup earlier this year.

However, this has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for Japan in recent visits, as they have lost two of their last three matches away to Bahrain.

Visiting optimists will look at the fact that Japan have won 10 of the other 11 meetings between the nations though, and they are huge favourites to do so again here.

With Australia and Saudi Arabia dropping points already after one game, Japan's 7-0 win sets them on course to finish in the top two, which would seal their place at the finals without the need of going through the fourth stage.

After a poor Asian Cup campaign which saw Hajime Moriyasu's side exit at the quarter-final stage to Iran, the Samurai Blue will be looking to make amends with comfortable qualification for the World Cup.

In that objective, Japan are certainly flourishing, as they have won all four games to nil since their elimination, scoring 18 goals.