England 0-1 Japan: Blue Warriors stun Tuchel’s side to make history | OneFootball

Japan made history by becoming the first Asian country to beat England, emerging 1-0 winners at Wembley against Thomas Tuchel’s rotated yet equally hapless side.

The Three Lions created very few openings in their final friendly before the World Cup begins in June, and were punished by a clinical first-half finish from Kaoru Mitoma.

Cole Palmer came closest to levelling when his curling effort rattled the bar, as none of England’s substitutes could find an equalizer to avoid much unwanted history.

As it happened

The Three Lions seemed nervy in the early stages, as Japan came close to opening the scoring just three minutes in when Ayase Ueda almost connected to a dangerous cross from Keito Nakamura on the left hand side.

England then managed to scramble the loose ball away from veteran winger Junya Ito mere yards from goal, before Japan won the game of ping pong inside their penalty area after Marc Guéhi headed Cole Palmer’s corner into a defender.

The hosts were very fluid and at times practically without a striker, with Anthony Gordon drifting wide to switch places with Phil Foden, yet were far too sluggish in possession to create any space for the pair to run into.

And it cost them dear just over twenty minutes in when Cole Palmer surrendered the ball and Mitoma broke away through the middle, before spraying it left to Nakamura and cooly slotting the return pass into the bottom right to stun Wembley.

A dangerous curling effort from Palmer was tipped superbly onto the bar by Zion Suzuki, who hadn’t had much to do for the opening half an hour, after England opted to go direct over the top of the Japanese defense.

Five minutes shy of half-time, it could’ve gone from bad to worse as Ueda was played in behind and the flag didn’t raise for offside despite England’s defense looking over expectantly and hit the bar.

Tuchel chose to make no changes at half time, and it was much of the same story with England slow on the ball and Japan carving through the midfield with ease.

Japanese captain Ritsu Doan managed to beat Nico O’Reilly to a high ball on the right wing yet was unable to beat Pickford at his near post, with the Everton goalkeeper getting down quickly to save with his legs.

It was then Ito’s turn to scamper in behind on 55 minutes, and to England’s fortune his chip back across goal was just too high for Ueda to test Pickford.

England wasted a good chance to draw level when Morgan Rogers was fouled 20 yards from goal and substitute Jarrod Bowen struck the wall with the resulting free kick.

Marcus Rashford was met with a roar from the home faithful as he made his way onto the pitch for the last quarter of an hour, and did well to create the space running back inside from the left and get a shot at goal.

Suzuki made the save but it was unconvincing and fell straight to Bowen who could only hook the follow up wide with his back to goal, as time was quickly running out for England to avoid unwanted history.

Harry Maguire was next to try his luck with a towering header from a corner, but Suzuki – one of Europe’s most promising young keepers at Parma – stood tall to beat it away with minutes left.

Newcastle left-back Lewis Hall struck a powerful low shot which Suzuki again moved quickly to parry to his right.

Boos were ringing around Wembley at full time as the Japanese fans in the corner of the ground went into raptures as history unfolded in front of their eyes.

As for England, the scenes bared echoes of a far too familiar tale.

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As far as any reassurances that England are well prepared for their opening match of the World Cup against Croatia, this just wasn’t it.

Not only were Thomas Tuchel’s side slow on the ball and had very little chance of penetrating Japan’s defense, but also lacked urgency in the transition from attack to defense, letting Karou Mitoma scamper away far too easily in the lead up to the opening goal and then all turning to the assistant expecting the flag to raise for offside as Ayase Ueda ran free and hit the bar.

Marcus Rashford was greeted warmly by the England fans, but was also unable to break Zion Suzuki and Japan’s strong resolve.

With the World Cup less than 100 days away, the Wembley faithful are now in dire need of any reassurances from Tuchel that England will once again drop the ball on the international stage.