Tunisia 0–4 Japan: Kamada and a Ueda brace blow Group F open
Some World Cup nights are settled long before the closing stages, and this was one of them. Japan needed only four minutes to put Tunisia on the back foot, never let the pressure off, and ran out 4–0 winners to send a loud, unambiguous message to the rest of Group F. Daichi Kamada opened the scoring almost from the first whistle, Ayase Ueda added a second before the half-hour and returned late to make it a brace, and Junya Itō slotted the third in between. By the time the dust settled, Japan had moved up to second in the group and Tunisia had been pinned to the bottom, their tournament hanging by the thinnest of threads.
The early goal set the tone for everything that followed. Kamada's strike on four minutes was the kind of opener that reframes a match before either side has properly settled, forcing Tunisia to chase a game they had presumably hoped to keep tight. The Crystal Palace midfielder, 29 and one of the more experienced heads in this Japan side with 49 caps to his name, has long carried a reputation for arriving in the right areas at the right moments, and this finish took his international tally to 12 goals. Crucially, it was also his second of this World Cup, marking him out as a genuine attacking threat in a Japan team that increasingly looks capable of hurting opponents from multiple angles.
If Kamada's early goal unsettled Tunisia, Ueda's on 31 minutes effectively ended the contest as a meaningful spectacle. The Feyenoord forward, 27 and sharp, doubled the lead to push Japan into the kind of commanding position from which there was realistically no way back for a Tunisia side already low on confidence. Ueda has built a tidy international record — 16 goals from 39 caps — and his strike here was his second of the tournament, evidence of a centre-forward who is reading the rhythm of this World Cup well. Two goals up at the interval, Japan could afford to manage the second half rather than force it.
There is a wider context to those two early goals that is worth dwelling on, because it speaks to how Japan have been built. This is a squad whose key attacking pieces ply their trade in Europe's leagues — Kamada at Crystal Palace, Ueda at Feyenoord, Itō at Genk — and the rhythm of that football showed in the speed with which they put the game to bed. Kamada's 12 international goals and Ueda's 16 are the returns of players who have done this at a high level for years, and against a Tunisia defence that has now conceded nine times in two matches, that quality told almost immediately. The early goal is the great destabiliser at this level, and Japan struck before Tunisia had any chance to impose a shape on proceedings.
Japan turn control into a rout
Where lesser sides might have eased off with the result apparently secure, Japan instead pressed home their advantage. Junya Itō made it three on 69 minutes, the veteran wide man stepping off the Genk wing to register on the scoresheet. At 33, and with 69 caps behind him, Itō is among the most seasoned figures in this squad, and the goal — his 15th for his country and his first of this World Cup — was a fitting reward for a player who has given Japan years of reliable service. There was a neatness to the timing, too: a third goal arriving just past the hour to snuff out any lingering hope of a Tunisian rally.
The fourth was a matter of Ueda finishing what he had started. His second of the night came on 83 minutes, a late flourish that completed his brace and underlined his standing as Japan's leading marksman at this tournament with two of his side's goals to his name. For a forward to take two in a single World Cup fixture is no small thing, and it caps a night on which Japan's attacking unit — Kamada, Ueda, Itō — shared the load and exploited Tunisia's frailties with something close to ruthlessness. Four different moments, three different scorers, one emphatic scoreline.
For Tunisia, there is no softening the picture. A blank sheet at one end and four conceded at the other tells its own story, and it follows a pattern that has defined their tournament so far. This was a result without consolation, a second straight defeat in which they were comprehensively second best. The goals they shipped were spread across the match rather than bunched in a single collapse, which in some ways is the more damning detail: Japan were in control from the fourth minute to the 83rd, and Tunisia found no period of the game in which they could turn the tide.
The spread of the scoring matters when you weigh how the night actually felt. A side can absorb a quickfire double and still believe a half-time reset might change things; it is far harder to take heart from a defeat in which the opposition keeps scoring at intervals — the 4th minute, the 31st, the 69th, the 83rd — across the entire ninety. Each new goal arrived just as Tunisia might have hoped to steady themselves, and the effect was cumulative rather than sudden. By the time Ueda completed his brace seven minutes from time, the contest had long since drifted beyond Tunisia's reach, and the final flourish merely formalised a gap that had been obvious from the opening exchanges.
What it means for Group F
The standings tell the clearest version of the night's significance. Japan move to four points from their two matches, sitting second in Group F on goal difference behind the Netherlands, who also have four points. Both leaders carry an identical goal difference of plus four, but the Dutch edge ahead on goals scored, having found the net seven times to Japan's six. Sweden sit third on three points with a level goal difference, leaving the group finely poised at the top with everything still to play for in the final round. Japan's emphatic win has not only banked three points but bolstered their goal difference into a genuine asset, something that could prove decisive if the group comes down to fine margins.
Tunisia, by contrast, are rooted to the foot of the table on zero points, two games played and two lost. Their goal difference of minus eight is the kind of number that tells you how the campaign has gone: one goal scored, nine conceded across two outings. They opened with a heavy 1–5 defeat away to Sweden, and this 0–4 reverse against Japan has only deepened the hole. With one fixture remaining, the arithmetic of qualification has tightened to the point of near impossibility, and the more realistic battle now is one of pride and improvement rather than progression.
It is worth tracing how the two sides arrived at this point. Japan opened their campaign with a creditable 2–2 draw away to the Netherlands, holding the group's eventual co-leaders on their own patch before turning that solidity into a statement win here. That sequence — a hard-earned point against the strongest side in the section, followed by a four-goal demolition of the weakest — is exactly the trajectory a team hoping to go deep would want. Tunisia's road has run in the opposite direction entirely: a 1–5 loss away to Sweden to begin with, then this 0–4 defeat, leaving them with a solitary goal scored and a defence that has been breached at will. Two matches, two heavy reverses, and a goal difference that now reads minus eight.
The shape of the run-in is set. Tunisia close their group campaign at home to the Netherlands on 26 June (4:30 AM IST), a daunting assignment against the group leaders that offers little by way of comfort given how the first two matches have unfolded. Japan, meanwhile, face Sweden in the same window — a meeting of second against third that carries obvious weight for the qualification picture. A point may well be enough for Japan depending on results elsewhere, but on the evidence of this performance they will fancy their chances of finishing the job in style and perhaps even pipping the Netherlands to top spot.
That final-round Sweden clash looms as the pivotal fixture in the group. Sweden sit a point behind Japan on three, level on goal difference with Tunisia's conquerors, and a win for either side would do significant damage to the other's hopes of a comfortable passage. Japan will take confidence from the manner of this victory, but they will also be wary that a team can flatter itself against weak opposition; Sweden, who put five past Tunisia themselves, will present a sterner examination than anything Tunisia could muster. The Netherlands, for their part, will expect to take care of a deflated Tunisia and so keep the pressure on at the summit. In short, the group's complexion at the top remains genuinely competitive, and Japan's job is not yet done.
Our pre-match call
We will take this one. Ahead of kick-off our tip was simple and direct — Japan to win — and we attached a confidence rating of 66 per cent to it. The reasoning was equally straightforward: Japan's front line was in form and, we judged, should find a way through eventually. As it turned out, "eventually" arrived after just four minutes, and the way through proved to be a motorway rather than a side door. A 4–0 win is about as comprehensive a vindication of a straight match-winner call as you could ask for.
What pleases us most is that the read held for the right reasons. The whole basis of the tip was the sharpness of Japan's attack, and it was precisely that attack — Kamada early, Ueda twice, Itō to round it off — which dismantled Tunisia. We did not overreach by demanding a specific margin or a particular scoreline; we backed the most likely outcome at a sensible confidence level and let the favourites do the rest. There is a lesson in that restraint worth holding onto: a clean, well-judged win-line on a team in form is a sturdier proposition than a flashier bet dressed up with handicaps and qualifiers. On this occasion the simple call was the smart one, and it landed without drama.
So Tunisia 0–4 Japan goes into the books as a near-flawless evening for the men in blue and a chastening one for Tunisia. Japan have goals across the team, momentum at their backs and a healthy goal difference to lean on heading into a decisive final group game. Tunisia leave with nothing — no points, no clean sheet, and a mountain still to climb. Our pre-match verdict called it correctly, and for once there is nothing to qualify: Japan were tipped to win, and win they did, in style.
