Ayase Ueda scored twice and had an assist to help Japan to a 4-0 Group F victory on Saturday night in Monterrey, Mexico, to eliminate Tunisia and spoil the debut of their coach Herve Renard.
Tunisia were eliminated while Japan and Netherlands each have four points and a plus-4 goal differential.
Sweden have three points heading into the final group matches, when Japan plays Sweden and Netherlands faces Tunisia.
Daichi Kamada opened the scoring in the fourth minute, the fastest goal ever for the Japanese in a World Cup match. The previous mark was Shinji Kagawa’s score against Colombia in the sixth minute of their 2018 match.
Ueda made it 2-0 in the 31st minute, Junya Ito scored in the 69th, and Ueda’s header in the 83rd made Japan the first Asian team to score four goals in the World Cup.
