Follow live coverage of Ivory Coast v Japan here

Where to Watch Live

Kick-off is set for 2am BST. Live coverage is on ITV 1 and UTV. Radio commentary of the game will be available on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Overview

Ivory Coast are among the five teams qualifying from CAF (Confederation of African Football) after defeating Senegal in the final qualification round. They registered 3-1 victory at home in the first leg before managing a 1-1 draw in the second leg; to emerge 4-2 triumphant on aggregate.

They have plenty of talent up their ranks in all positions with Kolo Toure and Serge Aurier in defence, Yaya Toure and Cheick Tiote in midfield while the attack boats the likes of Salomon Kalou, Gervinho, Didier Drogba and Wilfried Bony.

In their World Cup warm-up matches, Les Elephants suffered a 1-2 defeat against Bosnia-Herzegovina before managing to reverse the score against El Salvador in their previous game.

Sabri Lamouchi's side have never managed to go beyond the Group stages of the World Cup and will be hoping that his players will make it for the first time this year.

Meanwhile, Japan earned their ticket to Brazil from the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) section after finishing first in Group B with 17 points from eight matches, in the fourth round of qualifiers.

Alberto Zaccheroni's men are on a winning run of six matches in all competitions and were triumphant against Cyprus (1-0), Costa Rica (1-3) and Zambia (4-3) in their warm-up matches before making the trip to Brazil for the competition.

Japan have twice made it into the knock-out stages of the World Cup in their last four attempts and Zaccheroni will be keen for his Blue Samurais to repeat the feat and go as far as possible this year.

The Italian will be hoping for Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa and AC Milan's Keisuke Honda to provide the spark in attack while believing that Shalke's Atsuto Uchida, Inter Milan's Yuto Nagatomo and Southampton's Maya Yoshida will provide a solid defensive performance against the might of the Ivorian attack.

The remaining two teams in Group C – Cameroon and Greece - will be in action at the Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte, with kick-off set for 5pm BST.

What Managers Say

Sabri Lamouchi (Ivory Coast): "Our ambition is to go beyond the first phase as it is something the Ivory Coast have never managed before. We have brought in younger players because we also need to prepare the future. It is true that we have great players, international class players like Drogba, Yaya Toure and Gervinho, but this generation has still not won anything and we need to find out why that is."

Alberto Zaccheroni (Japan): "I want us to be really well prepared mentally for this match. We need to make sure the players are not too nervous when they step out onto the field, but we cannot be too relaxed either. We have a squad with an average age of about 27. There is a good balance and I am sure we will start this game with the right approach."

Team Form

Ivory Coast

  • Last Five (all competitions, most recent first): W L D D W
  • Last Result: El Salvador 1-2 Ivory Coast

Japan

  • Last Five (all competitions, most recent first): W W W W W
  • Last Result: Japan 4-3 Zambia

Team News

Ivory Coast

  • Injured: N/A
  • Doubtful: N/A
  • Suspended: N/A

Probable Lineup: Barry; Aurier, K Toure, Bamba, Boka; Tiote, Y Toure, Zokora; Gervinho, Drogba, Kalou

Japan

  • Injured: N/A
  • Doubtful: N/A
  • Suspended: N/A

Probable Lineup: Kawashima; Uchida, Yoshida, Konno, Nagatomo; Hasebe, Endo; Honda, Okazaki, Kagawa; Kakitani

Japan