Germany’s World Cup opening opponent Japan celebrated an unchallenged home win in the international match against Paraguay thanks to active support from the Bundesliga.
Takuma Asano from VfL Bochum (36th), Frankfurt’s Daichi Kamada (42nd) and Ao Tanaka from Fortuna Düsseldorf (85th) scored in the 4-1 (2-0) in Sapporo. The four-time Asian champions remained unbeaten for the eighth time in a row.
Stuttgart’s Hiroki Ito also made his debut for the Japanese, who are Germany’s first group opponents at the World Cup in Qatar on November 23. Wataru Endo (VfB Stuttgart) and Genki Haraguchi (Union Berlin) were also in the starting XI.
After being connected by Derlis Gonzalez (59th), Kaoru Mitoma (60th) made it 3-1.
Coach Hajime Moriyasu’s team is already testing against five-time world champions Brazil on Monday, and four days later it’s against Ghana.