The SAMURAIBLUE (Japan National Team) played in an international friendly match against the Panama National Team on Friday 13 November at Graz, Austria. With MINAMINO Takumi (Liverpool FC) converting a penalty kick in the 61st minute, Japan earned their second consecutive victory counting from their Netherlands tour held last month.

Following their match against Cameroon National Team and Cote d'Ivoire National Team at Utrecht, Netherlands, coach MORIYASU Hajime elected to start this match with a three back formation, with YOSHIDA Maya (U.C. Sampdoria), ITAKURA Kou (FC Groningen), and UEDA Naomichi (Cercle Brugge K.S.V.) controlling the defence line in front of the GK GONDA Shuichi (Portimonense S.C.). HASHIMOTO Kento (FC Rostov) and SHIBASAKI Gaku (CD Leganes) were named as the defensive midfielders, while NAGATOMO Yuto (Olympique de Marseille) and MUROYA Sei (Hannover 96) were placed in the wing-back position. For Nagatomo, this was his 123rd cap, which is the second most caps in Japan National Team history.

KUBO Takefusa (Villarreal CF) and MIYOSHI Koji (Royal Antwerp FC) were positioned as the attacking midfielders with Minamino playing as the lone striker upfront. .....

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