Manchester United’s Shinji Kagawa has urged the International squad of Japan to take risks when they face Brazil in a friendly in Poland on Tuesday night.
Kagawa himself scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over France in Paris on Friday evening, Japan’s first victory over France in six previous meetings.
However, Kagawa has demanded that Japan sharpen up on Tuesday to then prepare for a World Cup qualifier in Oman on November 14th.
Speaking with Japanese media on Monday, Kagawa said:
“When you play against the best teams you need to take more risks, we still don’t take enough risks.”
“We’ve got to rise to the challenge of the top teams. Not just me and (Inter Milan defender) Yuto Nagatomo on the left – we have to be linking play from the back too.”
“The top two and the player behind have to be able to keep possession,” said Kagawa, who has impressed at Manchester United since his pre-season move from Borussia Dortmund.
“Brazil are a stronger team than France so that will be the challenge for us. We’ve said we want to reach the quarter-finals of the next World Cup.
“In that case we have got two years to improve in a lot of areas, and we need to learn to play with more confidence.”
Japan currently have 10 points after four games in the first round of qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup and are on course to qualify, after featuring in every world-cup since 1998.
Watch highlights from France 0-1 Japan
