Japan head to Wembley ready to show they’re the real deal before World Cup | John Duerden

Japan head to Wembley ready to show they’re the real deal before World Cup Fresh from a rampant qualification and a win over Brazil, Hajime Moriyasu’s side want to make another statement with a first victory over England J ust before the 2002 World Cup , South Korea played Scotland and England in the space of a few days. A 4-1 win against the former in the second city of Busan was followed by a 1-1 draw on the honeymoon island of Jeju, with the future Manchester United teammates Michael Owen and Park Ji-sung the scorers. These results gave the Taegeuk Warriors the confidence to reach the semi finals. Japan are not on home soil but have lined up the same opposition, beating Scotland 1-0 in Glasgow on Saturday before heading to Wembley on Tuesday. The hope is that these games will help set the scene for a similarly sensational Japanese summer, especially given this Samurai Blue side are much further along the developmental journey than their east Asian neighbours were 24 years ago and the victory at Hampden Park was a comfortable one for what was a fairly experimental team. Now it is time for England . Thomas Tuchel would have seen from Saturday’s game that Japan are comfortable on the ball and, after a slow start – understandable given the unfamiliar personnel – the four-time Asian champions can operate with cohesion, clarity and control without really getting out of second gear. In the end it was a deserved win against Scotland, thanks to Junya Ito’s goal, the Genk winger finishing off a fine move late on. “In the second half we opened up quite a bit and created many chances, which was good because we won,” said Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, who came on at the break and impressed. “But it would have been better if we had made it 2-0 or 3-0.” After four last-16 exits in the past six World Cups, the message coming out of Tokyo is one of ambition; namely reaching the last eight of this summer’s tournament. Fresh from scoring 54 goals in qualification and conceding only thre...