Akira Nishino deployed a new formation but endured a disappointing first match in charge with a 2-0 defeat by Ghana
Ghanaians turned out in their thousands to cheer their soccer team's arrival home late on Monday, spraying their jet with water cannons and rolling out the red carpet for the World Cup's surprise quarter-finalists.
Images from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers matches.
Five-time European champions Liverpool are in the quarter-finals of this year's competition
Colombia's James Rodriquez is once again looking to showcase his skills at the showpiece event and remind the world of his talent.
Former world champions France and Uruguay battled their way to a goalless stalemate in a dour match dominated by defences in Group A of the World Cup on Friday.
Lacklustre France failed to turn their superior possession into chances and could ultimately pay a heavy price as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Uruguay in an uninspired World Cup Group A clash on Friday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday he hoped South Africa would not humiliate the France team at next month's soccer World Cup as fellow Africans Senegal did in 2002.
Boosted by 2014 Golden Boot winner James Rodriguez and top scorer Radamel Falcao, a confident Colombia will be looking to demolish low-ranked Japan on Tuesday before moving on to tougher Group H rivals Poland and Senegal.
Fulham fixed their penalty jinx as Ivan Cavaleiro's spot kick eased them out of the relegation zone with a shock 2-1 win at high-flying Leicester City in the English Premier League on Monday.
Nigeria's aviation authorities said that the passenger arrested from a New York-bound flight and detained in Puerto Rico for being on US' 'no-fly list', was a Gambian and not a Nigerian national and described it as a case of "mistaken identity".
Nigeria became the first African country to qualify for next year's World Cup finals after a 2-0 home win over Ethiopia in their playoff in Calabar on Saturday.
Werder Bremen's on-loan Chelsea defender Papy Djilobodji has received a three-match ban for making a throat-slitting gesture in Saturday's 1-1 Bundesliga draw with Mainz.
United SC entered the semi-finals of the IFA shield after a 4-2 win over East Bengal on Saturday, while Pune FC's 2-0 win over AS Douanes of Senegal enabled Air India set up a final-four clash with Churchill Brothers.
When the International Labour Organisation appointed Assane Diop as executive director to kick off its social protection initiative in 2000, it couldn't have found a man with better credentials for the job.
World champions France had eight players, one less than former holders Spain, in international players' association FIFPro's 55-name shortlist for its World XI of 2018 award.
'This initiative is not about finding more sponsors or marketing partners. It's about developing elite basketball prospects'
Liverpool's Champions League winning trio of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mane joined regulars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the shortlist for The Best FIFA Men's player award
At some stage this fall in the quality of life will begin to hurt anybody's popularity, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Mbappe and Benzema inspire France to 2-0 win against Finland
Elected along with India on the board of UNAID were the US, Russia, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Guatemala and Monaco.
Bayern Munich were held to a 2-2 draw by Aberdeen, while Atletico Madrid lost 1-0 at Bolton Wanderers in the UEFA Cup last 32 first-leg matches.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is camping in Berlin's Hotel Adlon Kempinski. He will soon meet the president of Nigeria before meeting Hu Jintao, president of China.
Poland coach Adam Nawalka said his team had needed to beat Japan in their final World Cup match on Thursday to prove they were not quitters and bring some joy to their country's football fans after a miserable campaign in Russia.
Belgium coach Roberto Martinez declared himself delighted with a 3-0 win over World Cup debutants Panama but there were plenty of issues that will encourage England after their own winning start in Group G.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Poland forward Robert Lewandowski will be faced with a defender ominously known as K2 when, at the age of 29, he finally makes his debut at the World Cup finals in Tuesday's Group H match against Senegal.
Two impressive long-range shots in the final minutes gave Tunisia and South Africa draws in their opening African Nations Cup Group D games.
Defending champions Egypt beat Cameroon 4-2 while Zambia had a one-sided 3-0 triumph over Sudan in Group C's opening encounters of the African Nations Cup.
Modi will arrive in France on Thursday evening and straightaway head for talks with Macron, who will also host a working dinner for the visiting leader.
Argentina upset World Cup hosts France 17-12 in the tournament's opening match at the Stade de France.
The above map explains the freedom of expression index for each country. United States, Poland and Spain are in the first three places with 5.73, 5.66 and 5.62 as their scores respectively
'Where people in the name of religion kill each other, kill others just to go to heaven, and thinking only they will go to heaven,' says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Germany's exit has no bearing on England preparations for the World Cup latter stages and they will be going all out to win their final Group G match against Belgium, coach Gareth Southgate said on Wednesday.
England and Belgium, already qualified from World Cup Group G, meet on Thursday in what Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini says could be a "strange match". Depending on the outcome of other games, it may not be an advantage to finish top of the group, but both sides insist they won't take such calculations into account.
Lille fought back from a goal down to win 3-1 at Nancy in Ligue 1 on Sunday but lost goalkeeper Tony Sylva.
The striker was suspended from playing for the national team for six months after he reacted angrily to being substituted.
The career milestones of the France international and outgoing Arsenal captain
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