Saudi Arabia 0-5 Japan

AFC – DOHA, Shinji Okazaki scored a hat-trick as Japan sealed their AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 quarter-final spot in style with a 5-0 victory over already eliminated Saudi Arabia at Al Rayyan Stadium on Monday.

A quick-fire double from Okazaki inside 13 minutes put the Samurai Blue in control before Ryoichi Maeda added a third midway through the first half.

Maeda struck again just after the break and Okazaki wrapped up the dominant win with his third 10 minutes from time.

The win means Japan finish top of Group B and will play hosts Qatar in the quarter-finals on Friday.

It took just eight minutes for the East Asians to get off the mark as former AFC Asian Player of the Year Yasuhito Endo spotted the run of Okazaki between two Saudi defenders and the Stuttgart man raced onto the pass before lobbing the keeper and then stabbing the ball into the unguarded net.

The Saudi defence was caught napping again just five minutes later as this time Shinji Kagawa saw Okazaki unmarked inside the area and lifted the ball for the in-form striker to head home his second of the game.

Japan were running riot and they grabbed a third after 19 minutes when Yuto Nagatomo raced down the left wing before delivering a cross that Maeda volleyed home from close range with Saudi keeper Waleed Abdullah well beaten.

With the points all but secured, Japan took their foot off the pedal and invited Saudi Arabia to attack and the Green Falcons created some chances through Osama Al Harbi, Tayseer Al Jassem and Abdullah Suhail.

But Japan should have had a fourth just before the break when Kagawa was put through on goal, but the Borussia Dortmund forward’s knock past Abdullah was too heavy and he was unable to put the ball in the back of the net before the keeper and defence recovered.

Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni decided to introduce Masahiko Inoha at the start of the second half and he made an almost immediate impact with his 51st minute cross being headed home by Maeda.

From then on, however, there was very little in the way of chances for either side once again with the majority of the Japanese players seemingly content with the margin of victory.

Okazaki had other ideas though and he completed his hat-trick 10 minutes from time, latching onto a ball from Maeda and working his way between defenders before rifling a shot beyond Abdullah from six yards.