Denmark 1-3 Japan
Denmark closed their poor World Cup with a drab apology of a performance. Japan were effervescent throughout and won deservedly. This was strange from Denmark who had won their European qualifying group by such a margin. But as Jan Molby pointed out on the radio they had scuffed an early away victory in Portugal before having a good run of easy games that they won so as to be streets ahead before the more challenging games later on in their schedule.
As it was they were quickly two down to goals from free kicks by Honda and Endo. After half time things progressed pretty much as had the first half with Dennmark controlling huge swathes of the pitch except for where it really mattered. With ten minutes remaining, they gave themselves some hope of qualifying with a goal from Jon Dahl Tomasson after his initial penalty had been saved by Kawashima. However it wasn't to be and Okazaki restored the two goal cushion from Honda's pull back in the 89th minute. Having come into the Tournament in poor form,Japan have started ticking over nicely.
