Jordan News

Today, Tuesday, the Japanese national team defeated its Saudi counterpart, with two goals, at Saitama Stadium, in the eighth round of the final qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Thus, Japan’s points tally rose to 18, behind Saudi Arabia, which led with 19 points.

The match began with a great reservation, as play was confined to the center of the field without any team posing a threat to the other’s goal, while the Saudi team was hit by a strong blow after the departure of the pivot, Abd al-Ilah al-Maliki, due to injury, to be replaced by Abdullah al-Khaibri after a third of the hour of the first half.

The Saudi team tried to reach the goal of its Japanese counterpart through a fixed ball with Al-Omari’s header and another through a corner and a shot by Yasser Al-Shahrani, but his ball was far from the goal.

The Japanese team waited for about half an hour to threaten Al-Akhdar’s goal after Junya Ito’s breakthrough, who bypassed Al-Shahrani and hit a ball that was saved by Al-Owais.

Junia returned and bypassed Al-Bulayhi and played a cross for Minamino, who manipulated the defense and played it to hit Al Owais and landed in the net as a first goal, despite Al-Ghannam’s attempts to take it out with the 32nd minute.

The Saudi Green tried to equalize the result through Yasser Al-Shahrani’s cross, but his ball passed Muhammad Kno.

Al-Ahly’s most dangerous player, Junia, almost scored the second goal, but his shot was found by Al-Owais, who saved it before the defense took it out with the fortieth minute, after which the referee called the end of the first half with a Japanese lead with a clean goal.

Second half

The Japanese team started pressing and Junya played a cross that the striker was late in dealing with.

And Japan returned and sent a falling ball that Al Owais pounced on before it reached the striker Osako.

In the third attempt, Japan scored a second goal through a cut ball played by Nagamoto for Junya, who shot it powerfully in the net of Al Owais in the 50th minute.

Then the Frenchman, Herve Renard, moved and made two substitutions to activate the offensive team, pushing Saud Abdel Hamid and Hattan Bahbri and withdrawing Fahd Al-Mawlid and Ali Al-Hassan.

After that, the team improved relatively to the level of control without forming a danger, except for a shot from Saud Abdel Hamid that hit the defender and reached the goalkeeper with the 67th minute.

In return, Japan coach Hajime paid Maeda and Nakaima.

And in a final attempt, Hervey threw the last two cards to put Khaled Al-Ghanam and Abdullah Al-Hamdan as substitutes for Sultan Al-Ghanam and Firas Al-Braikan.

Japan almost scored the third goal after Junia’s cross to substitute Asano, who threw the ball out of the three blocks.

And from a cross by the sheep, it reached Lahttan, who was taken out by the defender before it reached Hamdan.

And from the cross of Saud Abdul Hamid, it reached Al-Omari, who played it with his head and wobbled in the arms of the goalkeeper.

Al-Omari saved Saudi Arabia from a goal by an investigator after he took out a ball in front of the Japanese striker to end the match with a Japanese victory with two clean goals.