Japan beat Bahrain 3-1 to set up an Asian Cup quarter-final against either Iran or Syria.
The Samurai Blue are one of the favourites to be named Asian champions once again, and they were comfortably better than Bahrain over the course of this match at the Al Thumana Stadium in Doha
They took the lead on 31 minutes when Ritsu Doan swept home after Seiya Maikuma’s shot from distance had come back out off the upright.
They doubled that advantage just four minutes after the break when Takefusa Kubo tucked home calmly. The referee initially disallowed that goal for offside, but VAR showed the ball had deflected off Bahrain defender Hazaa Ali, and it was allowed to stand.
Striker Ayase Ueda then got Bahrain back into the game with a calamitous own goal, getting in the way of goalkeeper Zion Suzuki’s attempts to catch the ball and duly heading into his own net
But Ueda showed his class at the other edge soon after, holding off the close attention of Bahrain defenders and slotting between the legs of goalkeeper Ebrahim Lutfalla to put daylight between Japan and Bahrain once more at 3-1.
Japan had plenty of presentable opportunities after that point and ought to have scored more, but that didn’t matter when the final whistle confirmed their place in the last eight.
