How Ao Tanaka got on for Japan as Leeds United star plays full 90 minutes in hostile China clash

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Leeds United midfielder Ao Tanaka rounded off Japan’s final international break of the year with an away trip to China.

Japan were playing their sixth World Cup qualification match of a group they are absolutely ramping towards top spot in.

Tanaka was an used sub in Japan’s 4-0 win away at Indonesia on Friday but was brought into the starting line-up for the trip to China, a side they defeated 7-0 back in September.

Liverpool’s Wataru Endo and Sporting Club de Portugal’s Hidemasa Morita are often ahead of Tanaka in the pecking order for a place in midfield, but his form for Leeds has been too good to ignore completely.

Tanaka recently won Leeds’ player of the month for October and injured captain Ethan Ampadu spoke highly of the summer signing’s form.

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How Tanaka’s Japan got on vs China

Despite Japan being clear front-runners at the top of the group, Tanaka and his teammates were playing in front of an extremely hostile home crowd.

According to Football Zone, lasers were pointed towards the Japanese players during the national anthem, which was booed. A pitch intruder also saw the game suspended for a brief period.

However, Japan did not let that affect them as they eased to a fifth victory in six matches with a comfortable 3-1 win.

Tanaka played the full 90 minutes as Koki Ogawa (2) and Ko Itakura got on the scoresheet, with Liangming Lin’s goal just after half-time nothing more than a consolation for the hosts.

With Endo playing alongside him, Tanaka was handed a slightly more advanced role than he plays for Leeds and unsurprisingly, was impressive again.

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Tanaka stats as Japan win 3-1 in China

It is difficult to understand how Leeds were able to pay less than £3 million for Tanaka considering his attributes and consistency.

Tanaka is a complete all-round midfielder who can do all aspects of the game, and according to his Sofa Score stats, his performance for Japan was more evidence of that.