Japan will face Brazil in a World Cup last-32 clash after drawing 1-1 with Sweden on Thursday to send both teams through behind the Netherlands in Group F.<\/p>\n
A game in front of 70,000 in Texas burst into life in the second half, Daizen Maeda giving Japan the lead after the break but Anthony Elanga levelling minutes later.<\/p>\n
Japan, fancied as dark horses to go far in the tournament, were hanging on by the end as Alexander Isak and Elanga both went close.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands finished top of a competitive group with seven points, with Japan on five, Sweden four and Tunisia on the plane home with zero.<\/p>\n
Graham Potter’s Sweden have also qualified for the knockouts as one of the best third-placed finishers.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands, who eased past Tunisia 3-1, will face Morocco in Monterrey while Japan play Brazil in Houston.<\/p>\n
Potter, whose side were torn apart by the Netherlands last time out, changed his goalkeeper and started Elanga.<\/p>\n
“We had to defend the box and wide areas better,” said the Englishman.<\/p>\n
The former Chelsea and West Ham boss, who changed his goalkeeper, added: “The boys were fantastic.<\/p>\n
“Over the course of the game it was a pretty fair result and arguably we were slightly the better team in the second half.”<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen who Sweden will play next.<\/p>\n
“It’s a tricky one,” said Potter.<\/p>\n
“We need to be on our toes in terms of logistics, that’s the fun part of the tournament.”<\/p>\n
Japan hang on<\/p>\n
Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands all came into the final round of matches with a chance of winning a tough group.<\/p>\n
The Dutch and Japan, who drew 2-2 when they met, were virtually assured of progressing no matter what.<\/p>\n
Sweden were also in a healthy position before kickoff, having thrashed Tunisia 5-1 before losing by the same scoreline to the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Only Tunisia – who faced the Dutch at the same time on Thursday in Kansas City – were out of contention.<\/p>\n
The giant screen that hangs over the pitch at the air-conditioned home of the Dallas Cowboys flashed up two early goals for the Dutch, leaving them in pole position in the group.<\/p>\n
Japan and Sweden were safe in the knowledge that a point was enough, and the paucity of chances in the first period reflected that.<\/p>\n
The Premier League duo of Isak and Viktor Gyokeres had very little impact in the Swedish attack, as a technically superior Japan dominated the ball.<\/p>\n
On the stroke of the break Japan had the best chance of the first half, winger Keito Nakamura forcing goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom to turn the ball around his post.<\/p>\n
The second period started the same way, all-action Japan midfielder Ao Tanaka jigging his way into space but blasting over the bar.<\/p>\n
Hajime Moriyasu’s team turned up the heat, and they took the lead on 56 minutes when the dangerous Celtic attacker Maeda rolled the ball beyond the on-rushing Zetterstrom after being slid in by Ritsu Doan.<\/p>\n
The lead lasted six minutes, the Newcastle winger Elanga cutting in from the right and firing with his left from the outside the box and beyond goalkeeper Zion Suzuki.<\/p>\n
Sweden were now on top and Suzuki denied Isak as Sweden went in search of a winner.<\/p>\n
Suzuki kept Elanga out in the third of seven added minutes, then the goalkeeper stopped an Isak header from close range.<\/p>\n
Follow how the game unfolded below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan will face Brazil in a World Cup last-32 clash after drawing 1-1 with Sweden on Thursday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-495915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}