Japan vs Ghana
International Friendlies
Date: Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Kick-Off at 11:25 UK / 12:25 CET
Venue: Nissan Stadium, Yokohama.
Japan are looking to bounce back from recent defeats on Wednesday when they host African outfit Ghana in the first of two pre-World Cup tests. Samurai Blue have had a couple of turbulent months behind them as they decided to part ways with the manager who led the team successfully in Asian Qualifications.
Vahid Halilhodzic had obvious issues with team’s main stars Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda who struggled to make the team under his leadership. Failures in March friendlies against Mali (1-1 draw) and Ukraine (1-2 loss) saw the Bosnian manager fired as Akira Nishino took charge.
The new manager will make his debut on the national team bench just three weeks before the start of the World Cup in Russia.
Japan vs Ghana: Head-to-head
Ghana won the first H2H encounter with Japan back in 2006 (0-1), but Samurai Blue won the following two to gain the lead in head to head stats ahead of their fourth encounter.
Japan were pretty impressive in the final third netting seven goals in back-to-back wins over the Black Stars in friendlies from 2009 and 2013.
The previous meeting between these two outfits happened in September 2013 when Samurai Blue won 3-1.
Japan vs Ghana: Prediction
The hosts will be highly motivated to clinch the victory on Nishino’s debut on the bench. The spirits in and around the squad seem to be much higher compared to those under Vahid Halilhodzic. Moving forward, the rivals have been anything but impressive in their qualifying campaign finishing only third in the group with Egypt, Uganda and Congo.
Atletico Madrid’s Thomas Partey is Ghana’s main force in the center of the park, but the visitors might struggle to create up front without the Ajew brothers here. Overall, Ghana won just one of last eight games in all competitions and we can hardly see them making an upset and ruining the World Cup preps to Japan. The main bet will be Japan’s win at decent-value 1.80 odds, while braver tipsters can back the Asian outfit to win by two or more goals at the odds of 3.30.
Japan vs Ghana: Bet Tips
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Japan to win @ 1.80
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Japan -1.5 handicap @ 3.30.
