On Sunday 2 April, the U-16 Japan National Team played their first match of the 50th Montaigu Tournament against the U-16 Portugal National Team, who they lost to in the same tournament six years ago.

The match kicked off at 18:00 in a great atmosphere with a local crowd of nearly 1,300 in attendance. Japan started off by apply aggressive pressure to win the ball and create opportunities to take shots. Portugal on the other hand, focused their attacks on the right flank and delivered several crosses towards the Japanese goal, but led by the centre-backs OKAWA Yugo (Kashima Antlers Junior Youth) and KUROKI Yuya (Sagan Tosu U-18), Japan managed to repel the Portuguese attacks to end the first half 0-0.

In the second half, Japan kept up the pressure and produced more plays that resulted in shots. However, Portugal also created more opportunities by exploiting the mistakes made by their opponents to threaten the Japanese goal. Following a close opportunity created by Japan in the 60th minute, Portugal launched a counterattack that nearly broke the deadlock, but Japanese goalkeeper ARAKI Rui (Gamba Osaka Youth) was there to make a huge save to keep the clean sheet intact. .....

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