Japan will be looking to translate their group-phase form into the quarterfinals on Saturday when they play host to New Zealand at Kashima Soccer Stadium.
Japan have been the best team of the tournament so far. The home nation cruised their way to the knockout phase with three wins in three games, including an empathic 4-0 drubbing of France on Wednesday.
The host nation bagged as many as seven goals in three games. Real Madrid’s Takefusa Kubo was the main catalyst for their successes as he found the back of the net in each of three games so far.
Japan also had four other goalscorers in this tournament. With one star man and such a fantastic team effort, the hosts simply have to be considered one of the main candidates for a medal in Tokyo.
Just for the sake of comparison, New Zealand had only two goalscorers so far in the tournament.
As expected, Chris Wood was their key player en route to clinching the second spot in Group B. Burnley’s forward notched two of his team’s three goals in three games and he will no doubts be the main threat to Japanese goal on Saturday.
Nevertheless, we are worried about New Zealand’s back line here. Danny Hay’s men shipped three goals in a second-round defeat to Honduras.
They did keep clean sheets in the other two group affairs, but the likes of Korea Republic and Romania are way less dangerous than Japan.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

周六，日本将在鹿岛足球场主场迎战新西兰，他们将把小组赛阶段的状态转化为四分之一决赛。
日本队是本届世界杯迄今为止最好的球队。东道主德国队以三场比赛三胜的成绩顺利进入淘汰赛阶段，其中包括在周三以4-0痛击法国队。
东道主在三场比赛中攻入7球。皇马的久保武夫是他们成功的主要催化剂，到目前为止，他在三场比赛中都打进了一球。
在本届世界杯上，日本队还有其他四名进球手。凭借一名明星球员和如此出色的团队努力，东道主只能被认为是东京奥运会奖牌的主要候选人之一。
为了便于比较，新西兰迄今为止在世界杯上只有两名进球者。
不出所料，克里斯·伍德(Chris Wood)是b组第二名的关键球员，伯恩利(Burnley)的前锋攻入了本队三场比赛中三粒进球中的两粒，毫无疑问，他将是本周六日本队进球的主要威胁。
不过，我们还是很担心新西兰队的后防线。丹尼·海的球队在第二轮输给洪都拉斯的比赛中进了三个球。
他们确实在另外两个小组中保持了零失球，但是像韩国和罗马尼亚这样的球队要比日本危险得多。