Japan down Pakistan in Asiad football

LAHORE: In the football field, a much stronger Japan U-23 football team defeated Pakistan U-23 by a convincing lead of 4-0 in the second Group ‘D’ game of Asian Games on Thursday.

Pakistan, who were playing only their second match since their return to international football after three years, were completely dominated by their Japanese counterparts in the contest. Yuto Iwasaki took just two minutes to score Japan’s first goal of the match as Pakistani defenders looked helpless against Japan’s attacking football. Just seven minutes later, Japan netted the ball for the second time in the game with the courtesy of Reo Hatate. Only a minute later, Japan struck their third goal when Daizen Maeda got the better of Pakistan defence.

In the 35th minute of the game, Yuto Iwasaki scored his second goal of the match to give Japan the decisive 4-0 lead in the one-sided contest.Pakistani defenders seem much alert in the second of the play as they kept Japanese attackers away from their goal. However, they failed to impose any threat to Japan’s 4-0 lead in the process. Earlier, Pakistan had lost their opening game of the campaign against Vietnam by 3-0 on Tuesday.