Teams

24

FIFA Ranking

0

Finals

2018

Last World Cup

2018 (R16)

Best Performance

Japan qualified for their seventh straight World Cup with a game to spare in the Asian section of qualifying despite a slight hiccup in the earlier matches of the qualifiers where they lost 2 of their first 3 games, but following a run of 6 straight wins during which they conceded just once, they finished the group second to Saudi Arabia to automatically qualify. They managed to reach the round of 16 last time around in Russia, but they agonizingly let a 2 goal lead slip and conceded three times in the last 20 minutes as they were eliminated by Belgium. It was the joint furthest they had ever reached in the World Cup, but it will may be a tall order for them to get out of this group with European giants Spain and Germany awaiting them.

Fixtures

Player to Watch

Ex-Liverpool attacker Minamino made the switch to Monaco in the summer, collecting three trophies in his two and a half year stint on Merseyside. Minamino was joint top scorer for Japan in qualifying with 10 goals in 15 appearances and will be main creative outlet for Japan as they look to escape an immensely tough group.

Squad List

Name

Eiji Kawashima

Shūichi Gonda

Daniel Schmidt

Miki Yamane

Shogo Taniguchi

Yuto Nagatomo

Takehiro Tomiyasu

Hiroki Sakai

Yuta Nakayama

Maya Yoshida

Hiroki Ito

Ko Itakura

Wataru Endo

Gaku Shibasaki

Takumi Minamino

Takefusa Kubo

Hidemasa Morita

Junya Ito

Daichi Kamada

Ao Tanaka

Kaoru Mitoma

Ritsu Dōan

Yuki Soma

Daizen Maeda

Ayase Ueda

Takuma Asano

Position

GK

GK

GK

DF

DF

DF

DF

DF

DF

DF

DF

DF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

MF

FW

FW

FW

Club

Strasbourg (France)

Shimizu S-Pulse (Japan)

Sint-Truiden (Belgium)

Kawasaki Frontale (Japan)

Kawasaki Frontale (Japan)

FC Tokyo (Japan)

Arsenal (England)

Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan)

Huddersfield Town (England)

Schalke 04 (Germany)

VfB Stuttgart (Germany)

Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany)

VfB Stuttgart (Germany

Leganés (Spain)

Monaco (France)

Real Sociedad (Spain)

Sporting CP (Portugal)

Reims (France)

Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)

Fortuna Düsseldorf (Germany)

Brighton & Hove Albion (England)

 SC Freiburg (Germany)

Nagoya Grampus (Japan)

Celtic (Scotland)

Cercle Brugge (Belgium)

VfL Bochum (Germany)

Age

39

33

30

28

31

36

23

32

25

34

23

25

29

30

27

21

27

39

26

24

25

24

25

24

24

27

Caps

95

32

9

13

12

136

28

70

16

119

3

12

41

58

47

18

16

36

19

13

7

26

6

7

9

36

Goals

0

0

0

2

0

4

1

1

0

12

0

1

2

3

17

1

2

9

5

2

4

3

3

1

0

7