World Cup 2018: Asia's best combined starting-XI

Forwards:

LW: Heung-Min Son

South Korea's hopes largely rest on Son's shoulders

Undoubtedly, Heung-Min Son is the first name on the team sheet, when putting together Asia's best starting-XI. The Tottenham striker has developed into a formidable player and will give his opponents nightmares.

The 25-year-old scored 12 goals in 37 Premier League appearances for the Spurs this season, while providing six assists in the process. South Korea's hopes are resting on this man's shoulders, and everyone knows it.

Should Son be able to reach peak form in Russia, he's almost impossible to stop and could start scoring for fun. However, the main question will be, whether he is able to deal with the extra attention he will undoubtedly receive from his opponent's defences.

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RW Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Jahanbakhsh is certainly one to look out for at the World Cup

Alireza Jahanbakhsh is a potential breakout star of this year's World Cup. The current Alkmaar player is the attacking center-piece of Iran and any hopes of winning matches will be placed in his ability to create something out nothing.

Jahanbakhsh and fellow forward Sardar Azmoun work brilliantly together and provide the defensively profound Iranian team with an attacking quality, they have rarely ever had.

While his colleague Azmoun is dubbed as the 'Iranian Messi', the youngster still lacks the efficiency of Jahanbakhsh, who scored an incredible 21 goals in 32 matches for Alkmaar, whilst providing 12 assists and averaging a whoscored.com rating of 8.20.

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CF Mohammed Al-Sahlawi

Al-Sahlawi's lethality paved Saudi-Arabia's way to Russia

Most definitely the most difficult position to fill. While the Asian teams have a plethora of attacking talent at their disposal, true goalscorers are hard to find and the relatively unknown Mohammed Al-Sahlawi just gets the nod.

The main reasons for his selection into our Asian XI, are his incredible goalscoring record in the qualifying stage, scoring 16 goals in 15 matches, and the dependence of his team on their star performer.

The Saudi-Arabian players are entirely employed in their home domestic league, with Al-Sahlawi currently playing for Al-Nasr Riyadh.

There are only two things that could speak for a Saudi-Arabian 'Cinderella-story'. On the one hand, they were placed in the supposedly weak group A and on the other hand, the fact that Al-Sahlawi was the most successful goalscorer in the Asian World Cup Qualifiers.