"First, I would like to congratulate the fans and the Saudi people on qualifying for the semi-finals of this important continental tournament,” said Al Otaibi.

"The Japanese team was very strong and pressured us for most of the match. However, we dealt with the game according to the coach's plan and succeeded in exploiting the opportunities. Thankfully, we won the match on penalties.

"Now we have to focus on the next match, and I hope the fans who supported us in the stands today will continue to support us in the next match so that we can reach the final and compete for the title."

While Japan dominated possession and had 17 attempts, only four of those were on target which led Saudi Arabia head coach Mario da Silva to be appreciative of his team’s work rate in defensive situations.

"The defence was exceptional in today's match, and that was the basis of our plan to maintain a tight defensive closure and rely on quick transitions,” said da Silva.

“We managed to take the lead in the first half before our opponent equalised again. However, our players remained focused for the penalty kicks, which ultimately led to us getting what we wanted."

Japan swung into an early lead through Taiga Seguchi after nine minutes but Saudi Arabia equalised via Abu Baker Saeed in the 17th minute before Sabri Dahal gave the hosts a first half lead following a sweeping counter attacking move.

The introduction of forwards Minato Yoshida and Hirota Asada gave Japan more attacking threat in the second half with the latter grabbing the equaliser but head coach Nozomi Hiroyama was expecting more before the end of regulation time.

“There was an expectation that we would try to take the initiative in the second half, it was a situation where we needed to decide the game in the second half but we didn’t,” said Hiroyama.

“Anyway, I believe that many in the squad are very talented players and they will one day make great professional players and be part of the senior national team.”