Japan beats China 2-1 in EAFF E-1 Football Championship

TOKYO, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japan beat China 2-1 in men's game of the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship on Tuesday.

All the three goals were scored in the last ten minutes of the game.

In the 84th minute, Yu Kobayashi opened scoring for Japan from a close range after an initial effort was blocked by Chinese goalkeeper Wang Dalei.

Only four minutes later, Gen Shoji scored a long-range goal to seal victory for Japan.

China missed a few clear chances and scored the only goal in injury time through Yu Dabao's penalty.

"We shouldn't have lost the game considering the opportunities we've got," said China coach Marcello Lippi after the game.

"Despite the first 15 to 20 minutes which were largely dominated by Japan, the two teams were evenly matched. Both Yu Dabao and Wei Shihao had good opportunities, but unfortunately failed to capitalize them," he added.

"The loss was due to a lot of reasons, and the physical tiredness was just one of them," he went on, adding that his players hurried to the game and were not in their best form after having a vacation following the Chinese Super League which ended last month.

"I'm glad for our victory. It was a very good game," said Japan coach Vahid Halilhodzic.

He added that there were some minutes that the team did not perform well, but "the opponents gave us two chances."

With two wins in as many games, Japan will only need a draw in the final game against South Korea on Saturday to claim the championship title for men's game.

China, with one draw and one loss, will play DPR Korea on Saturday.

The 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship is running in Tokyo and Chiba from Dec. 8-16.

Four countries - China, Japan, South Korea and DPR Korea - are competing in the championship. Enditem