{"id":54796,"date":"2024-01-31T22:43:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T22:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/japan-cruise-into-asian-cup-quarter-finals-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-01-31T22:43:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T22:43:16","slug":"japan-cruise-into-asian-cup-quarter-finals-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/japan-cruise-into-asian-cup-quarter-finals-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan cruise into Asian Cup quarter-finals | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nDOHA:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kaoru Mitoma returned as Japan survived a second-half wobble to set up an Asian Cup<\/a> quarter-final with Iran or Syria after a 3-1 win over Bahrain on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The four-time champions looked to be cruising in their last 16 game in Doha after goals either side of half-time from Ritsu Doan and Takefusa Kubo.<\/p>\n

But an own goal from error-prone goalkeeper Zion Suzuki let Bahrain back in the game until Ayase Ueda restored Japan’s cushion just under 10 minutes later.<\/p>\n

It was Ueda’s fourth goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Japan<\/a> were boosted by the return of Brighton winger Mitoma, who came off the bench in the second half to play his first game since injuring his ankle on December 21.<\/p>\n

But questions remain for Hajime Moriyasu’s side, who were the pre-tournament favourites but have yet to keep a clean sheet in four games in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Japan came close to opening the scoring in the 10th minute when Ueda thumped a header towards goal from a corner, only for Bahrain goalkeeper Ebrahim Lutfallah to claw it away.<\/p>\n

Bahrain also had chances to take the lead but it was Japan who struck first in the 31st minute.<\/p>\n

Right-back Seiya Maikuma unleashed a shot from distance that cannoned against the post and Doan reacted fastest to stick home the rebound.<\/p>\n

Japan were forced into a change when Celtic midfielder Reo Hatate went off injured five minutes later, with Hidemasa Morita coming on.<\/p>\n

Kubo doubled Japan’s lead in the 49th minute after a VAR goal check.<\/p>\n

The Real Sociedad forward looked to be in an offside position when the ball broke loose to him in the box, but the final ball had come off a Bahrain defender.<\/p>\n

What looked like being a stroll for Japan turned into a bad dream when Suzuki turned the ball into his own net in the 64th minute.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old, who has made a string of mistakes at the Asian Cup, misjudged a punch and got tangled up with Ueda to fumble the ball over the line.<\/p>\n

Ueda calmed Japan’s nerves in the 72nd minute when he drilled the ball home after a sweeping move forward.<\/p>\n

Mitoma was involved in several late chances after coming on in the 68th minute, but could not get on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOHA: Kaoru Mitoma returned as Japan survived a second-half wobble to set up an Asian Cup quarter-final with Iran or Syria after a 3-1 win over Bahrain on Wednesday. The four-time champions looked to be cruising in their last 16 game in Doha after goals either side of half-time from Ritsu Doan and Takefusa Kubo. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/japann1706712286-0\/japann1706712286-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}