On Tuesday 14 June, the SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team) faced the Tunisia National Team in the KIRIN CUP SOCCER 2022 final held at Panasonic Stadium Suita. After conceding three goals in the second half, Japan fell short from winning the title of the first KIRIN CUP SOCCER held in six years, finishing the four-match series with two wins and two losses.

In their final match of the four-match series held ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Japan faced Tunisia, who have clinched their sixth World Cup appearances.

With the intention of experimenting with different combinations of players, Head Coach MORIYASU Hajime elected to rotate eight players from their starting line-up against Ghana (Friday 10 June), as YOSHIDA Maya (UC Sampdoria), ITO Hiroki (VfB Stuttgart), and ENDO Wataru (VfB Stuttgart) were the only players returning to the starting eleven. MINAMINO Takumi (Liverpool FC), ITO Junya (KRC Genk), HARAGUCHI Genki (1.FC Union Berlin), NAGATOMO Yuto (FC Tokyo), and ITAKURA Kou (FC Schalke 04) returned to the line-up since the KIRIN CHALLENGE CUP 2022 match against Brazil (Monday 6 June), while ASANO Takuma (VfL Bochum), KAMADA Daichi (Eintracht Frankfurt), and SCHMIDT Daniel (Sint-Truidense VV) made their first start since the Paraguay match (Thursday 2 June). .....

＞＞READ MORE "JAPAN FA"