Asian powerhouse Japan took a step closer to the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup with a 4-0 demolition of Tunisia.
Ayase Ueda scored a brace while Daichi Kamada and Junya Ito were also on target as Japan. It was the biggest biggest win ever on the global stage by an Asian side and it came at a historic 1,000th World Cup match.
Japan sits atop Group F with the Netherlands, who defeated Sweden 5-1 in their game earlier today.
Tunisia, who were beaten 5-1 by Sweden in their first game of the tournament, can no longer hope for a place in the knockout rounds.
The Blue Samurai, who held the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw in their Group F opener, were always in control against Tunisia at the Monterrey Stadium.
Kamada opened the scoring after just four minutes, finishing from close range after deft interplay from Ao Tanaka and Keito Nakamura.
The Japanese almost scored again moments later, with only a desperate goalline clearance from Dylan Bronn denying the Asian giants a second goal.
Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Dahmen was also working overtime, and had to claw away a shot that just went agonisingly short of crossing the goalline.
Japan though finally added to their tally in the 31st minute, with striker Ueda (pic left) taking advantage of some hesitant Tunisian defending to surge forward and thunder a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
The rout continued in the second half, with Ito latching onto a brilliant through ball to calmly finish on 69 minutes as Tunisia were left reeling.
With their opponents unable to mount a fightback, Japan continued pressing and Ueda capped their historic night with a looping header in the 83rd minute.
