The national football teams of Japan and Tunisia met in their second match in Group F of the 2026 World Cup, starting at 08:30 this morning (Sunday, 31st of Gemini) Afghanistan time, at the Monterrey Stadium in Mexico to host the 1,000th match in the history of the World Cup. In the end, it was the samurais who achieved a high-scoring victory with a score of 4-0 and set up a historic celebration in the 1,000th game.
Japan, which had a good show in its first game against Holland and was able to stop the Dutch with a goal in the final minutes to draw 2-2, appeared powerful from the beginning in the game against Tunisia and scored the first goal in the fourth minute by Daichi Kamada.
In the 15th minute, Japan came close to scoring the second goal, but because the full ball did not cross the Tunisian goal line, the goal was not confirmed by VAR after reviewing the scene.
In the continuation of the game, it was again Japan that was thirsty for goals and got paid for its smart and regular game and in the 31st minute Ayase Ueda scored the second goal to end the first half with a 2-0 lead.
In the second half, Tunisia played a little better and tried to give less space to the opponent, but Herve Renard’s men looked shaky again. Japan scored the third goal in the 69th minute by Junya Ito. This was not the end for the two teams, and in the 84th minute, Ueda scored his second goal and his team’s fourth to complete the samurai goal festival and Japan held a historic celebration in the 1,000th game in the history of the World Cup.
Tunisia could not do anything with its new head coach, Herve Renard, and as the French coach of this team said before the game, there was no magic and the African team withdrew from the 2026 World Cup very soon after losing for the second time in a row.
The Romanian referee, Stevan Quarch, was in charge of this game.
The 1,000th match in the history of World Cups was accompanied by the Japan Flower Festival. Samurais took a big step towards promotion from Group F by getting 4 points from two games (a draw against Holland and a big-goal victory against Tunisia).
Ayase Ueda was the best player of the field with the two goals he scored. Daichi Kamada also showed that he is in good form with the goal he scored in the 4th minute. With this victory, Japan registered its second most-scoring win in the World Cup after the 4-1 victory against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup.
With two consecutive defeats against Holland (3-1) and Japan (4-0), Tunisia remained at the bottom of the group F table without points and due to the results of other games, it practically lost the chance to advance.
In social networks, Japan fans have referred to this high-scoring victory as “a historic celebration in the 1,000th World Cup game” and the hashtag #JapanHistory has become a trend in cyberspace.
According to football experts, Japan showed that it is one of the most serious contenders for promotion from Group F with this high-scoring victory. The observers say that the Samurais, with a regular and coordinated show, identified the weak points of the Tunisian defense well, and using the speed and technique of their players, they easily scored a goal. This historic victory in the 1,000th game of the World Cup will give the samurai a high morale for the crucial match against Sweden. Despite changing the coach, Tunisia could not change its downward trend and with two heavy defeats, it was named one of the first teams to be eliminated from this competition.
