Japan high on confidence ahead of World Cup after beating England 1-0

LONDON – Japan claimed their first victory over England with a 1-0 win in a friendly at Wembley on March 31, giving coach Hajime Moriyasu confidence ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Kaoru Mitoma scored the only goal in a match where England dominated possession but lacked a cutting edge in attack.

Japan are unbeaten since losing 2-0 to the United States in September 2025 and have recorded wins over Brazil, Ghana, Bolivia and Scotland since then. They also hammered Germany 4-1 in late 2023.

“England are a strong team and we had to persevere for a long period. But the players were tenacious and put into practice how to play with patience when things aren’t going our way,” Moriyasu told reporters.

“It gives us confidence that we can beat anyone. But it was a match we could also have lost. We need to pull our socks up again.”

Moriyasu made a number of changes to the side that beat Scotland 1-0 last week and handed a start to Brighton & Hove Albion winger Mitoma, who began and finished off the counter-attack that led to Japan’s goal.

“That was the kind of moment we were looking for. That gave us some mental leeway,” Mitoma said.

“It’s great we could play the same way despite changes to our members. We’ll look to score more.”

Japan have reached the round of 16 in three of the last four editions of the World Cup, beating European heavyweights Germany and Spain in the group stage in Qatar in 2022.

England manager Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, says he now has more “clarity” after their final home match before the World Cup.

“We knew that we had a tough exam to play for in this window because our players are heavily invested in club football, they’re heavily invested in European football and in the physically toughest league that there is,” he said.

“We played against two top-20 teams (1-1 draw against Uruguay on March 27), well-drilled, very good opponents, who arrived in the best line-up.

“We had seven, eight injuries who had to leave camp. It’s not an excuse, it’s just an explanation why things are not perfectly smooth and maybe perfectly on the highest level that we expect.”

Elsewhere, Spanish police on April 1 launched an investigation into Islamophobic and xenophobic chants that marred the 0-0 draw with Egypt in Barcelona on March 31 in a pre-World Cup friendly.

Egypt’s national anthem was jeered and the public announcement system at RCDE Stadium appealed to fans more than once to refrain from making offensive comments.

It was the latest in a string of similar incidents to overshadow Spanish football in recent years, with Real Madrid’s Brazilian attacker Vinicius Jr in particular repeatedly racially abused.

“What we’ve done is condemn these kinds of attitudes and to say they must not be repeated,” said Rafael Louzan, president of the Spanish Football Federation. He called it “specific and isolated situations”.

In other significant friendlies on March 31, Brazil beat Croatia 3-1, Portugal beat the US 2-0 and Argentina beat Zambia 5-0. REUTERS, AFP