Germany 1-4 Japan 
Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu watched his side achieve a stunning 4-1 win over Germany on Saturday and then said they "still need to improve" before the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ in January. 

 

Japan scored two goals in each half to thump their struggling hosts, echoing the 2-1 win against the Germans in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which helped dump Flick's team out of the tournament at the group stage.

 

Junya Ito and Ayase Ueda scored either side of a Leroy Sane strike in the first half at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg, with goals in the final five minutes through Takuma Asano and Ao Tanaka sealing a dominant Japanese performance.

Moriyasu told reporters "we need to not only congratulate ourselves, but we need to continue our development."

 

"There are more teams, more challenges, so in this sense, we have many more tasks."

 

The coach said his side "put a good deal of pressure on Germany" but "we need to improve."

 

"We need to be more compact, everyone must defend, everyone needs to attack, we need to react dynamically."

The four-time AFC Asian Cup winners have now won three games in a row ahead of the tournament.

 

Japan take on Turkey on Tuesday in their final friendly of the international break.

Harry Souttar opened the scoring for Australia in the 16th minute and the Socceroos looked headed for a famous win over their World No 12 opponents when Martin Boyle doubled their lead from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute. 

 

A Mexican spot-kick, fired home by Raul Jimenez in the 69th minute sparked the fightback with Cesar Huerta ensuring a share of the spoils with his equaliser seven minutes from the final whistle. 

USA 3-0 Uzbekistan
A fourth minute strike from Timothy Weah and two stoppage time goals gave the United States a 3-0 win over Uzbekistan in a friendly in St.Louis.

Weah blasted the USA ahead with a shot that took a slight deflection after Weston McKennie showed some outstanding skill to bring down a high cross from Christian Pulisic and then hold off three defenders to set up the Juventus right-winger.

 

But Uzbekistan frustrated the Americans with their disciplined defensive work and also went close to scoring twice before the break.

Khojiakbar Alidzhanov rattled the bar with a fierce strike after cutting in from the right and then USA keeper Matt Turner had to be alert to foil Eldor Shomurodov after a mistake from Tim Ream.

 

There were few bright moments after the break, but the USA made sure of the win with a stoppage time strike from substitute Ricardo Pepi, who unleashed a first-time drive from the edge of the box.

 

The third came minutes later when Umar Eshmurodov brought down Malik Tillman and Pulisic converted the penalty to secure a scoreline that flattered the Americans.

 

The US, who will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Canada and Mexico, face Oman in another friendly on Tuesday.

Malaysia 1-1 China PR
Malaysia impressed in a 1-1 draw with China PR at the Phoenix Hill Stadium in Chengdu.

 

Forward Faisal Halim gave the Malaysians the lead against their higher ranked opponents in the 11th minute, scoring his 12th international goal with a well-placed finish past  goalkeeper Yab Junling.

However, Aleksandar Jankovic's side responded with an equaliser in the 37th minute, courtesy of Lin Liangming's powerful strike that beat Malaysian custodian Syihan Hazmi.

 

Malaysia ended the international break with two draws, having held Syria 2-2 last week. The Syrians meet China PR on Tuesday.