On Thursday 11 November, the SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) played their fifth match of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ AFC Asian Qualifiers (Road to Qatar) against the Vietnam National Team at My Dinh National Stadium, Hanoi, where they won 1-0 thanks to the goal scored by ITO Junya (KRC Genk). With this victory, Japan moved up to third place in Group B, as they are now scheduled to face Oman in Muscat on Tuesday 16 November.

With Japan entering the match in fourth place in their group with two wins and two losses, the team was in a must win situation to clinch the top two spots to automatically qualify for the World Cup. On top of that, 11 players who travelled from Europe arrived late due to an issue that occurred during their transit, giving the team only one training session ahead of the match with the entire squad.

Japan entered this match with a 4-3-3 formation, which they used against Australia in the second match of the October series. The starting line-up was also unchanged, except for the right full back position, where YAMANE Miki (Kawasaki Frontale) took over. .....

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