Japan v Scotland: Women's World Cup 2019 – live!

Shelley Kerr on picking Jane Ross: “Jane’s a top goalscorer. We need that threat today, you can’t sit behind the ball for 90 minutes. She provides an attacking threat, and we hope she can link up well with Erin Cuthbert.”

Here’s an intriguing deep dive into the unusual history of women’s football in Japan. As this quote shows, it was quite a journey to become world champions in 2011:

“In the early 1980s, women’s tournaments even had different rules. The pitch was smaller; they played with a special “girls’ ball”; the halves were only 25 minutes long; and hands were permitted if they were used to protect chests.”

Shelley Kerr has rung the changes, with full-backs Sophie Howard and Nicola Docherty replaced by Kirsty Smith and Hayley Lauder, who wins her 100th cap. Jane Ross and Lizzie Arnot also come in, with the injured Christie Murray and Claire Emslie, the goalscorer against England, missing out.

Japan coach Asako Takakura calls on experience in attack, with Mana Iwabuchi replacing Kumi Yokoyama. Nana Ichise and Jun Endo also come in, replacing Moeka Minami and Yui Hagesawa.

Get to know both teams a little better with our expert guides:

Japan (4-4-2): Yamashita; Shimizu, Kumagai, Ichise, Sameshima; Nakajima, Miura, Sugita, Endo; Sugasawa, Iwabuchi.

Subs: Ikeda, Utsugi, Sakaguchi, Kobayashi, Minami, Takarada, Hasegawa, Momiki, Miyagawa, Yokoyama, Hirao, Miyake.

Scotland (4-4-2): Alexander; Smith, Corsie, Beattie, Lauder; Evans, Little, Weir, Arnot; Cuthbert, Ross.

Subs: Docherty, Love, Crichton, Lynn, Arthur, Howard, Murray, Emslie, Clelland, Brown, Fife.

Scotland’s senior sides, as if you needed reminding, have never reached the knockout stages at a major tournament. The men have tried and failed 10 times, while the women’s team came up agonisingly short at Euro 2017.

Shelley Kerr’s side may have lost their opening game here, but there are reasons to believe. They gave England a late scare in Nice, and face a Japan side who haven’t won in five matches and were held to a surprise 0-0 draw by Argentina.

That said, Japan have been to the last two finals, and will be eager to show they are still contenders today. A point for Scotland here would set up a final showdown with Argentina, with a likely place in the last 16 for the winners.

History informs us that with Scotland, things are rarely that straightforward. Kick-off is at 2pm, BST; 3pm in Rennes.