The Blue Samurai are 3/1 outsiders to beat their south American opponents in Pretoria on Tuesday

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There were scenes of wild celebration at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on Thursday night, with Japan taking the game to Denmark and coming away with a 3-2 victory. Takeshi Okada’s team only needed a draw but a couple of well-taken free kicks put them on the way to the last sixteen stage.

The Blue Samurai now face Paraguay and the bookies reckon that it will be an uphill struggle for the Group E runners-up. William Hill offer 3/1 that Japan win the game, although it’s possible that this team are being underrated, especially as they have beaten both Cameroon and Denmark already. Indeed, they held Holland at bay for most of the match and the 11/8 (bet365) that they go through to the quarter finals is probably too big.

Gerardo Martino’s men did enough to win Group F, although it was only against Slovakia where you can say that they played really well. It was this 2-0 victory over the Slovaks which effectively ensured they won the section, although they were second best when drawing 1-1 with Italy and couldn’t find a way past New Zealand. Even so, you can back Paraguay at 11/10 (bet365) to win in ninety minutes.

In terms of defensive organisation, the south American side are probably one of the best teams in the competition, with Sunderland’s Paulo Da Silva and Julio Cesar Caceres operating very well as a central defence partnership. It’s little wonder when you consider they have 135 caps between them and they are a tempting 11/8 (Sky Bet) to stop Japan from scoring.

In attack, Martino needs to decide whether to continue with Roque Santa Cruz, a striker who showed a disappointing attitude against New Zealand with his decision to shoot on sight at every opportunity. He’s 13/2 (Ladbrokes) to score his first goal of the World Cup and the first goal of this game, although the manager might consider Lucas Barrios (6/1 Paddy Power) and Oscar Cardozo (13/2 Paddy Power) to be a better partnership.

Meanwhile, it’s Keisuke Honda who is proving to be the star of the Japanese show and he’s 8/1 (Victor Chandler) to score first at Loftus Versfeld. The CSKA Moscow midfielder has been deployed in an advanced position by Okada and we all know after the Denmark game that he can take a mean free kick.