Brazil tackle Japan in Poland

Brazil will play Japan in an international friendly in the Polish city of Wroclaw on October 16.

The match will be played at Wroclaw’s new Municipal Stadium, which will also host matches in Euro 2012.

“This will be the hit of the season: Japan-Brazil, or Brazil-Japan, because I will be rooting for Brazil,” Wroclaw mayor Rafal Dutkiewicz told Wroclaw.sport.pl.

Wroclaw is scheduled to host three Group A fixtures at Euro 2012, involving teams such as Russia, Czech Republic and Poland.

The stadium was opened in September 2011 with a capacity for 42,000 people.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Under-23 team booked their place at the London Olympics after defeating Bahrain 2-0 on Wednesday in Tokyo.

Despite clearly gaining early control, Japan failed to make the most of their superiority on a slippery playing surface, and the match remained scoreless at half-time.

But the hosts finally broke the deadlock in the 54th minute, when Takihiro Ogihara skillfully received Genki Haraguchi’s low pass before sending a right-footed shot into the net.

Japan needed just four more minutes to add a second goal when Keigo Higashi’s low cross bypassed midfielder Yuki Otsu, reaching an unmarked Hiroshi Kiyotake on the far side of the goal.

The Cerezo Osaka attacker’s strike went sailing into the goal, capping off his impressive return to national team action for the first time in six months.

In the other Group C match, Syria beat Malaysia 3-0 at Jordan’s King Abdullah Stadium to finish second in the group and qualify for a three-team play-off at the end of the month in Vietnam.

The winner of that play-off will face the fourth-placed finisher in AFCON qualifying.