Takehiro Tomiyasu says playing regularly in the Premier League gave him the tools to compete against Jordi Alba and Ansu Fati on Thursday.

Japan achieved a shock victory over Spain in their final group game on Thursday, allowing them to progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup and top their group ahead of both Spain and Germany.

Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu hasn’t been involved too much for Japan at the tournament so far, due to injury.

But the defender played the full second half of the comeback win over Germany, and he came on for the final 22 minutes to try and close out the match against Spain.

Tomiyasu was ultimately successful in that endeavour, despite facing pressure from top opponents in Jordi Alba and Ansu Fati.

Speaking after the game, the 24-year-old put that success down to his Premier League experience, before calling on the whole team to do even more.

“I’m playing in the Premier League, so I was able to show what I do on a day-to-day basis,” Tomiyasu said.

“I think we can do a lot more. I was able to play for about 20 minutes, so it was a good conditioning adjustment.”

Though it’s rather amusing for Tomiyasu to refer to a vital World Cup win over Spain as “good conditioning” for his injury rehabilitation, he’s not wrong.

The Japan international got back out on the pitch for competitive match action, but he only played a cameo role, so it was arguably the ideal day for him.

We’ll see if that helps him to get fit enough to start in the round of 16, with Japan set to face Croatia on Monday at 15:00 GMT.