Japan pulled off one of the great World Cup upsets in Group E, managing to finish top out of the four teams which included European giants Spain and Germany. The Samurai Blue overcame the two sides on their way to the round of 16, winning both games in dramatic fashion.
Two quickfire goals saw the side turn their opening tie against Germany on its head to win 2-1, but a surprising 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica - who had been thrashed 7-0 by Spain the game before - casted doubt over their progression. The task was then to beat La Roja in their final match, a tough task in itself.
Alvaro Morata opened the scoring in the first-half and a dominant display from Spain saw them fervently tipped to be World Cup winners by many of the pundits. However, they had a soft centre exposed as yet another quickfire double saw the Samurai Blue take the lead, dumping Germany out of the competition.
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Amongst all of that is a team effort off the ball to make sure they stay compact while they press their opposition into making mistakes. This is all without their star defender Takehiro Tomiyasu for the large majority of their games, with the Arsenal man still working his way back from injury.
The versatile 24-year-old managed to get 20 minutes from the bench, shutting down the pressure from both Jordi Alba and Ansu Fati on the flanks. He was asked about that task by outlet Gekisaka and responded: "I'm playing in the Premier League, so I was able to show what I can do on a day-to-day basis."
While he is still working his way back, Tomiyasu set down a huge marker for his future performances, adding: "I think I can do even better. I was able to play a over 20 minutes and it was a good conditioning adjustment."
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