Japan - Morocco Preview: Sekizuka's men looking to secure knockout place
Victory for the Asian side at St James' Park will book their place in the final eight, whilst Pim Verbeek's north African side know that they can not afford to lose
MOROCCO
 AmsifNoussair, El Kaddouri, El Kaoutari, Jebbour Kharja, Fetthoui Labyad, Barrada, Bidaoui Amrabat |
JAPAN
GondaTokunaga, Hiroki Sakai, Yoshida, Suzuki Ogihara, Higashi, Yamaguchi Otsu, Nagai, Kiyotake |
Morocco began their campaign with a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Honduras and will have to make a change at the heart of the defence after Zakarya Bergdich's red card in their opener; Montpellier's Abdelhamid El Kaoutari his likely replacement.
That apart, Pim Verbeek is likely to stick with the same side, meaning highly-rated Zakaria Labyad and Soufian Bidaoui on the flanks, with playmaker Abdelaziz Barrada behind former PSV Eindhoven striker Nordin Amrabat.
Japan started with a terrific 1-0 win over pre-tournament favourites Spain, with a wonderful counter-attacking display when they could (and perhaps should) have won by more.
As such, the Hoffenheim attacking midfielder Takashi Usami is likely to have to be content with a place on the bench again, unless goalscorer Yuki Otsu succumbs to the injury he picked up during that match.
Promising Nagoya Grampus Eight striker Kensuke Nagai should keep his place at the centre of Takashi Sekizuka's three-man attack, having been extremely impressive at Hampden Park.
| DID YOU KNOW? |
This is the seventh Olympic tournament thatMorocco have entered into, their best showing came at the 1972 Munich Games when they progressed to the second round.
- Only Senegal (one) have less domestic-based players in their squad than Morocco, who have Abdelatif Noussir and Mohamed Abarhoun from their home league
- Abdelaziz Barrada (pictured), scorer of Morocco's opening goal of London 2012, has only one season of professional first-team football under his belt, at the age of 23.
- Neither of these two squads have used their full quota of three Over-23 players. Kharja & Amrabat are Morocco's, Yuhei Tokunaga is Japan's only over-age player
- Japan won the bronze medal at the Olympics in 1968.
- Five of the Japan squad are set to ply their trade in the German Bundesliga next season: Hiroki Sakai (Hannover), Gotoku Sakai (Stuttgart), Takashi Usami (Hoffenheim), Hiroshi Kiyotake (Nurnberg), Yuki Otsu (Borussia Monchengladbach).
- Japan have won all three matches they have played since arriving in Britain two weeks ago: beating Belarus 1-0 and Mexico 2-1 in pre-tournament friendlies, as well as the 1-0 win over Spain.