Japan and UAE draw 1-1 in warm-up

Al Hammadi fired home between Japanese defenders in the 77th minute to salvage a barely deserved draw - it was the first and only shot from the visitors in the second half.

Only five minutes earlier, forward Shinzo Koroki's shot hit the right post, then defender Atsuto Uchida produced a cross on the rebound for midfielder Shinji Kagawa to give the home side the lead.

"I received a nice ball, I just needed to flick in. But I had more chances to score another goal, so I was very disappointed," said Kagawa.

Japan kept the initiative from the beginning, hitting three shots on goal in the first 15 minutes.

In the 26th minute, defender Shuhei Terada's header off Makoto Hasebe's free-kick narrowly went wide, while forward Keiji Tamada's shot was saved by goalkeeper Majed Naser in the 41st minute.

UAE had to wait for 33 minutes for their first shot, from distance, through forward Mohamed Al Shehhi but he failed to trouble the Japanese goalkeeper.

The visitors were better after the break, but they were never able to create a scoring chance until Al Hammadi went it alone after picking the ball up in midfield.

"The United Arab Emirates were defensive in the first half, so we were a bit relaxed and slow to start our attacks. We tried to put pressure through our forwards in the second half," said Japan coach Takeshi Okada.

"We managed to attack from both sides. That was good, but I was very disappointed that we couldn't win. We must score a second goal," he added.

Japan have four wins, seven draws and two defeats against the United Arab Emirates.

In their next World Cup qualifier, Japan will take on Uzbekistan in Saitama, while UAE play the Korea Republic in Seoul, both next Wednesday.