Takehiro Tomiyasu was in terrible form as Croatia dumped his Japan national team out of the World Cup yesterday and he has admitted he could have done better.
Japan took the lead in the game and looked to be too much for the Croatians to contain, however, Tomi was struggling for much of the encounter with different defensive mistakes.
The Europeans eventually equalised and took the game to penalties via extra-time after both teams could not be separated.
The Croatian goalkeeper was the hero of the day as he made some key saves to help his side make the next round of the competition.
After the game, Tomiyasu said via The Daily Mail:
‘Of course, we are so disappointed with the result.
‘My performance was a disaster today so I am sorry for the team.
‘I just need to be much, much better to help the team. It was not enough and also for the team, we did not deserve to win.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Tomi had a bad game, but he remains a player we can trust to deliver his best performance in any fixture.
The defender will return to the Emirates and prepare to help us when club football returns after Christmas.
Regardless of his performance at the World Cup, we expect him to be a key player for us on his return.
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Partey as well was poor.
Tomi had a bad game? True his lack of height couldn’t prevent Croatia’s headed goal but elsewhere, defensively he was solid all around the penalty box. His main weakness as a wing back is that he is limited in what he can offer when going forward. In what was a very even game, Japan were let down by being overly cautious and not having enough numbers when going forward and of course bottling it in the penalty shootout.
Joe, Tomi is 6’2″ so I don’t think his “lack of height” had anything to do with the terrific header by Perisic.Tomi, who was playing right centre back of a three was caught out of position but that does not dilute in any way the quality of the goal.That apart, he was very average at best but this is hardly surprising given his lack of regular game time of late.