Although many seats in My Dinh stadium were vacant, the stadium was booming with the chant of Japanese supporters. However the three times Asian Cup holder failed to delight its fans after Japan shared a disappointing draw with Qatar. The relentless chanting was silenced in the 87^th minute, following an equalizer goal from Qatar’s front man Sebastian Quintana.

The match started at medium tempo with the former champions maintaining almost 60% of the ball possession throughout the first half. Despite Japan’s total dominance in the midfield, the Samurai Warrior failed to flick the ball past the Qatar defense line. The Japanese had a few superbly architected one-two passes, but all went in vain at the feet of Qatar’s defense.

Qatar was rewarded with the first shot in the 17^th minute. Mohammad Gholam’s drive forced Japan goalkeeper to fly in order to save his goal. Shunshuke Nakamura also failed to unlock the sturdy Qatar’s defense throughout the first half. It was no surprise either that Japan’s striker Takahara remained idle during the first half.

The wind blew to Japan’s side in the second half resulting in Japan’s best chance so far in the match. Satoru Yamagishi was left unmarked thanks to Takahara’s clever pass but Yamagishi put the ball over the crossbar despite the fact that he was well positioned and unmarked at the time.  Thankfully, Japan’s left back, Konno, fired a cross shortly afterward which was easily put into the Qatar’s net by Takahara.

Qatar failed to threaten the Japanese goal in the second half, and the former champions looked happy to rest on their slender lead. Japan played the ball slowly and maintained a lot of ball possession; it looked like the match would belong to their team. It was not until the 87^th minute that Yuki Abe brought down Quintana on the right side of the Japanese penalty box. Quintana fired a drive which was deflected by Japanese defender to fool helpless Kawaguchi. Qatar’s miracle comeback was disrupted by the dismissal of its ace playmaker, Hussain Yaser for his unnecessary challenge in injury time. The game Japan v Qatar finished with a shock 1-1 score line.