On Tuesday 11 October at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne, SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) took on the Australia National Team in the fourth match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Final Qualifiers.

As the result of the match, Japan added a point up to seven, now with two wins, one loss and one draw. Although still trailing by single point Australia who have eight points after two wins and two draws, they moved up from fourth place to third in Group B. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia defeated the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 3-0 and took the top place of the group with 10 points out of three wins and one draw. Iraq cruised past Thailand 4-0 for their first three points in this qualifiers.

For the match against Australia, Japan replaced four players on the starting squad as well as made another positional shift, which was to have forward HONDA Keisuke (AC Milan/Italy) as a lone striker and put midfielder KAGAWA Shinji (Borussia Dortmund/Germany) behind Honda. Forward KOBAYASHI Yu (Kawasaki Frontale) took over Honda’s last match position of right midfielder, midfielder YAMAGUCHI Hotaru who scored the go-ahead goal against Iraq manned the defensive midfielder and defenders MAKINO Tomoaki (Urawa Red Diamonds) and SAKAI Gotoku (Hamburger Sport-Verein/Germany) took left and right full-backs respectively.....

＞＞READ MORE "JAPAN FA"