New Delhi: Having safely negotiated through the preliminary round, Asia's remaining three challengers will now set their eyes on the knockout stage of the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 India.
Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq and Japan advanced in different styles but will be aiming to continue their runs into the latter stages of the knockout round.
Iran were the most impressive, recording a perfect record of three wins to top Group C to set up a last-16 clash with Mexico on Tuesday.
Iran's run into the knockout stage was on the back of impressive wins over Guinea (3-1), Germany (4-0) and Costa Rica (3-0) and coach Abbas Chamanian's players will be confident of continuing their spectacular form against Mexico.
One drawback Iran suffered in their final group stage match win over Costa Rica on Friday was captain Mohammad Ghobeishavi picking up a booking, which means he will be suspended for the last-16 match.
Their group stage form aside, Iran's confidence will also be high as the 10 goals came from multiple sources with Younes Delfi and Allahyar Sayyad the only players to have scored two each.
The pair have led from the front and Iran will be counting on them to be firing on all cylinders against Mexico.
“We spend a long time talking to each other before each match and work out a game plan,” said Sayyad. “We always go through the details one more time and don’t like to leave anything to chance.”
Mexico advanced to the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams but they failed to win a single match in Group F, drawing against Iraq (1-1) and Chile (0-0) and losing 3-2 to England.
Reigning AFC Under-16 champions Iraq - after a start which saw them playing to a draw with Chile and beating Chile 3-0 - suffered a blow in their last match as they fell 4-0 to England.
Four points, however, were enough for coach Qahtan Al-Rubaye's team to seal a place in the last-16 against Mali on Tuesday.
Mali finished second in Group B behind Paraguay and Iraq stand a good chance of making the quarter-finals, with striker Mohammed Dawood - who has scored three goals so far - leading the charge.
On paper, Japan face the toughest challenge as they play England in their last-16 tie on Tuesday.
England advanced from Group F with a perfect record of three wins while Japan finished second in Group E behind France.
Japan started with a bang, beating Honduras 6-1 in their opening match and were unlucky to suffer a narrow 2-1 defeat to France.
Coach Yoshiro Moriyama's decision to rest players for the final group match against New Caledonia nearly backfired, with Japan being held to a 1-1 draw.
Keito Nakamura has been Japan's stand-out player in the tournament with four goals to his name and he and his teammates will have to be at their best against England.
Last-16 Fixtures
Monday
Colombia v Germany
Paraguay v USA
Tuesday
Iran v Mexico
France v Spain
England v Japan
Mali v Iraq
Wednesday
Ghana v Niger
Brazil v Honduras
Source: FIFA / Getty Images
Source: the-afc.com