England V Japan: Kirsty Gallacher’s Pre-Match Brief Sheet For Tonight’s World Cup Game

Tonight, England will play the final game of their first group stage against Japan in the 2019 Women's World Cup. They might have both qualified for the next group stage, but finishing top of the group is at stake and both teams will equally want a convincing win.

Finishing as group leaders is vitally important for England. The USA are cruising through their games, scoring 16 goals so far in just two matches, with France and the Netherlands also demonstrating big challenges. Essentially, we need more goalscoring, and that’s something we’re lacking at the minute.

Last week’s game against Argentina saw a surprise 1-0 win for England. A surprise because, despite Argentina having a good defence, it was expected that we would see an overwhelming attack and at least a few goals from England. Japan have a similarly good defence, and with the way we’re currently playing I don’t expect we’ll see a ton of goals again, but we do have one big difference this time: Toni Duggan is back.

With a fully fit squad, Phil Neville will be throwing everything at this game and with Duggan missing the first two games with a thigh injury she’s sure to come in hungry, ready to help them get a convincing win. Not least because she was part the 2015 World Cup side that saw Japan knock England out of the competition in the semi-finals. She too was there when England beat them 3-0 in the SheBelieves Cup back in march this year. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of pride at stake in this match.

What to expect

The Japanese are quite an ordered and organised side, so we’re unlikely to see a lot of red or yellow cards flying around. They also have a very young squad, with dashing’s of experience here and there. The average age is 24 years old and they have 17 players making their World Cup debut. While it’s great to have experience, that youth will make them fearless so they'll be hungry for a big win.

Japan having such a young, fresh and talented squad, the game will likely also be energetic. England might struggle to score all the goals they want in the face of this, but I do think they’ll win, it just might not be as convincing a win as we would want.

Score prediction

Realistically, I think it will be 1-1 which is disappointing because we want a bigger win, but we will get a point and top the group which is ultimately what matters.

Players to watch

Toni Duggan

The forward's return will be great to keep an eye on. She’s an experienced, dominant player and was honoured as a top goalscorer in the SheBelieves Cup this year. It’s a great time for her to come in, and I think the right one, she’ll be fresh and eager to get in the mix.

Emi Nakajima

One of Japan’s star players, Nakajima has been playing for Japan since 2011 and despite being a midfielder, has scored 13 goals over her 65 appearances. She’s one of the few players on the team with a wealth of experience, and will be well versed in playing England.

Kumi Yokoyama

An exciting new player that everyone’s talking about, Yokoyama is a forward and scored 17 goals over 40 appearances for Japan. In the 2018 Asian Cup, which Japan won, she scored the winning goal against Australia in the final game.

Click through to see the national team kits Nike designed for the 2019 World Cup

Do say

"There’s a fraught history between these two sides"

You might not expect it, but England and Japan have a tense past in women’s football. There’s the fact they knocked us out of the 2015 World Cup, but also that we beat them back in March with a huge 3-0 defeat. It’s with that in mind that Japan will be expecting a tough game, and England will be reliving their worst moment of the last World Cup.

Don’t say

"This game doesn’t matter because England are already through"

We might have qualified for the next stage, but our performance so far has been less than expected. We need to start winning more convincingly if we’re going to present any sort of threat to the USA or France, and with so much history between these two sides it’s integral for our confidence as a team that we smash this game.

To watch the game, tune into BBC One at 8pm.