On April 20, Beijing time, the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup continued, and Group B Japan faced the United Arab Emirates. Seiji Kimura opened the scoring, Sata Kawasaki scored a goal, and Japan won two consecutive victories to advance to the knockout round, which also means that the Chinese Olympic Games are officially out. So far, four of the top 8 seats in this Asian Cup have been born, namely Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea.
In the opening stage, the rhythm was within Japan's control, the passing control opened up the space and patiently organized the attack, and the players had strong individual ability and cooperated with each other very tacitly. Kaede Yamada's powerful shot from the edge of the box allowed the goalkeeper to make a wonderful save, and the team continued to press, Sekine Daiki volleyed wide of the far post, and in the 28th minute, Rihito Yamamoto sent in a precise cross, and Makoto Kimura's header hit the post and bounced into the goal.
The backward UAE did not sit still, they continued to maintain the defensive line and waited for opportunities, and the fierce shot from a tight angle in the penalty area was saved by Reio Kokubo in time. In the stoppage time of the first half, Sata Kawasaki broke through with the ball and was brought down, the referee awarded a penalty at the first time, VAR intervened, and watched the replay to show that there was no foul on the ball first, so that Japan temporarily led 1-0 at halftime.
In the second half, it was difficult for the UAE to cause the opponent's mistakes to grasp the conversion, and the fouls were tackled one after another to receive yellow cards, Japan played with ease, Ayumu Ohata snatched the ball at close range and was blown offside invalidly, and in the 66th minute, the continuous short pass on the side was very smooth, Ayumu Ohata received the ball at the bottom and quickly passed back to the goal, and Kawasaki Sata grabbed the goal with a header to expand the advantage.
The UAE's exhaustion of the physical exertion caused by the constant running of the defenders made it more difficult to switch attacks and threatened them, and the comeback was basically hopeless for them, and goalkeeper Tavid made a series of good saves in the closing stages to end Japan's 2-0 win over the UAE to make it two wins in a row in the group stage, and they will face South Korea Under-23s for top spot in the final round.