Kyogo Furuhashi appears to have come through Japan’s World Cup qualifier away to Oman unscathed.
The Celtic striker came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute with the match goal-less, fortunately for the visitors Junyo Ito scored the only goal of the game in the 81st minute.
Those points nudged Japan a point above Australia into second place with six of the 10 qualifiers completed, earlier today the Socceroos were held to a 1-1 draw away to China. Saudi Arabia are in top place with 16 points, Japan are on 12 with Australia on 11 points after six matches.
The sparing use of Kyogo seems to be a source of frustration for Japan fans but all that Celtic supporters will be bothered about is an injury-free return to prepare for Saturday’s League Cup semi-final against St Johnstone.
Japan’s World Cup qualification hopes are likely to be determined by how they fare at home to Saudi Arabia on February 1 before travelling to Australia on March 24.
The top two teams in each of the six nation groups qualify automatically for a place in Qatar, the third placed teams play-off against each other and then face a tie against a nation from another continent to see if they make it through to the finals.
Finishing third looks a bit of a nightmare with need for three more matches to be played to progress.
Good result for Japan. Kyogo got last 30 mins as a sub(suits us?). Like Calmac & Juranovic, Kyogo will be in good spirits for our huge game on Sat. All in, only Calmac, Juranovic (-15mins) & Bitton played 2 full international games. And most importantly no injuries reported. ?
— Celtic Symphony (@DM8883) November 16, 2021
Anyone wondering, Kyogo came through unscathed. Played well off the bench, bullying defenders as Japan won 1-0.
— Forrest Finishing (@getitinforrest) November 16, 2021
I like Gaku and Osako, but if they never come back to the national team again I will not be sad. Kyogo, Mitoma, even Daizen Maeda need to be given more time.
— Nick Watanabe (@watanabe2k) November 16, 2021
Kyogo and Mitoma should play 100% of the games, this coach is sooooo bad
— Sgodevole (SgoHs) (@LukeGiordani) November 16, 2021
Best player in Scotland by a country mile and he’s only been here a couple of months ,,
and it’s got every hun media monkey f*cking spewing