Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni believes his side did not play up to their usual standards as they fell 2-1 to Ivory Coast in Group C action on Saturday night.
The Blue Samurai took the lead through Keisuke Honda before second half headers from Wilfried Bony and Gervinho consigned the Asian giants to defeat, a result which the 61-year-old believes was just.
“We must give Ivory Coast credit as they played a great match,” he stated after the defeat as reported by calciomercato.com.
“We started well but we couldn’t keep the gaps between our positions for the entire match.
“The Ivory Coast players are gifted with lots of talent and we didn’t put them under enough pressure for the entire match.
“Unfortunately we weren’t able to play like we normally do.”
Follow Adriano Boin on Twitter: @Boin44
