Shinji Okazaki scored a hat trick and Ryoichi Maeda struck twice to give Japan a 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on Monday and a place in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup.
Japan will play host Qatar on Friday after completely dominating its last Group B match.
''We improved with every game so far,'' said Japan's Italian coach, Alberto Zaccheroni. ''Qatar lost the first game but they have come back and have the momentum now.''
Saudi Arabia, a three-time Asian champion like Japan, had already been eliminated and created virtually no scoring chances against a vastly superior opponent.
Few people came to see the two former champions on a windy, rainy and cool afternoon, with the official attendance given as 2,022 at Al-Rayyan stadium.
The Saudis, who dumped Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro after their opening loss to Syria and replaced him with Naser al-Johar, finished the tournament with three straight defeats.
''I would like to state that we wanted to give you a very beautiful performance, but we haven't given the crowd a performance that can redeem our national team in the entire tournament,'' said al-Johar, who apologized for the team's disastrous campaign. Al-Johar has coached the Saudi team on several occasions.
Japan won the group with seven points and a better goal difference than Jordan, which also finished with seven after beating Syria 2-1.
''It's a young team and sometimes we play fantastic football, but we still need to improve,'' Zaccheroni said.
Japan quickly took control of the match, with Okazaki scoring twice inside the opening 13 minutes.
He collected a good through ball from Yasuhito Endo, lifted it over the goalkeeper and fired into the empty net in the eighth minute, before connecting at the far post with a long cross from Shinji Kagawa five minutes later.
With Japan in total command, Okazaki's strike partner, Maeda, made it 3-0 in the 19th minute following a cross by Yuto Nagatomo. Shinji Kagawa might have added a fourth before the break, but was foiled by goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah.
Maeda notched his second goal in the 51st minute, nodding home a cross by substitute defender Masahiko Inoha from close range.
Okazaki completed his hat trick in the 80th minute after collecting a pass on the edge of the penalty area and turning to slot home.
''I was afraid that we would make mistakes but we didn't,'' Zaccheroni said. ''We lost our rhythm a little after we went up 3-0, but we got back on track in the second half.''
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Lineups:
Saudi Arabia: Waleed Abdullah; Abdullah Shuhail, Osama Hawsawi, Osama al-Harbi, Kamil al-Mousa, Ahmed Ateef, Naif Hazazi (Motaz al-Mosa, 45), Mohammed al-Shahoub, Abdoh Autef (Manaf Aboshgair, 28), Taiseer al-Jassam, Yasser al-Qahtani.
Japan: Shusaku Nishikawa; Yasuyuki Konno, Yuto Nagatomo, Atsuto Uchida (Masahiko Inoha, 45), Maya Yoshida (Daiki Iwamasa, 63), Yasuhito Endo (Takuya Honda, 82), Shinji Okazaki, Shinji Kagawa, Ryoichi Maeda, Yosuke Kashiwagi, Makoto Hasebe.
