NATAL, Brazil, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan tied 10-man Greece 0-0 in the first half of 2014 Brazil World Cup Group C here on Thursday.
The Greek skipper Katsouranis was out after picking up his second yellow card in the 38th minute. as he slid in and mistimed his challenge on Japan's captain Hasebe. However Japan still found difficult to score though they had a 70% ball possession advantage in the first half.
With Japan losing its opener 2-1 to Cote d'Ivoire and Greece getting thumped 3-0 by Colombia, both teams desperately need a win to stay in contention to qualify for the last 16 knockout stage of football's biggest international tournament.
Japan's Shinji Kagawa was left on the bench as the Manchester player struggled to make an impact in the first match. While Kostas Mitroglou, Greece's top scorer in qualifying, was in the 11 for Greece, but he was substituted by Theofanis Gekas only after 35 minutes due to waist injury.
Japan controlled the rhythm at the beginning but it was Greece who created the threat first. On four minutes, Mitroglou found space in the Japanese penalty area, but his shot was just over the bar. Six minutes later, Kone broke free of the Japanese midfield after taking the ball inside his own half, but his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Kawashima.
The Blue Samurai's best chance came in the 21st minute, Osako curled an effort from long range, which flashed wide of goalkeeper Karnezis' left-hand post.
After Katsouranis was off in the 38th minute, Greek didn't give up as Torosidis hammered a shot which forced Kawashima dived to his left and turned it round the post.