Bhaichung Bhutia tries to get past a Japanese defender in Yokohama on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Yokohama: Defending champions Japan taught India a footballing lesson by drubbing the visitors 6-0 in an Asian Cup qualifying tie here on Wednesday.

The hosts, up by a solitary goal at half-time, turned on the heat in the final 15 minutes to run up a tennis-like scoreline.

The scoreline, though, doesn’t reflect the Indian defenders’ plucky show whereby they managed to keep the nippy Japanese forwards at bay for most of the game.

Sandip Nandy was especially outstanding under the bar. Had it not been for his numerous saves, Japan could well have won by 10 goals or more.

The hosts took the lead around the half-hour mark thanks to a defensive blunder by N. Manju. His overhead clearance found captain Shinji Ono, who tapped in from close range to record the 100th goal under the supervision of Zico.

The lead was doubled around the hour mark when Hasebe’s fierce shot was deflected off Seiichiro Maki to leave Nandy flatfooted.

Takashi Fukunishi headed home an Alex Santos corner 10 minutes later.

Kubo was not to be denied for long, as slick Japanese passing resulted in him chipping the ball over the goalkeeper in the 79th minute to make it 4-0. Substitute Hisato Sato scored his first goal for Japan in the 83rd minute when his powerful shot from just inside the box beat Nandy.

The Indian embarrassment at the Nissan Stadium was complete when the Japanese forwardline toyed with the totally spent Indian defence before Kubo shot home his team’s sixth goal.

TEAMS

Japan: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Akiro Kaji, Yuji Nakazawa, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Alessandro Santos, Makato Hasebe, Takashi Fukunishi, Shinji Ono (71’ Endo), Mitsuo Ogasawara, Tatsukhiko Kubo, Seiichiro Maki (75’ Sato)

India: Sandip Nandy, Irungbam Surkumar Singh, Mahesh Gawli, Nanjangud Shivananju Manju, Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (82’ James Lukram Singh), Mehtab Hussain, Sanjeev Kumar Maria, Manjit Singh (46’ Mehrajuddin Wadoo), Krishnan Nair Ajayan, Syed Rahim Nabi, Bhaichung Bhutia.

(AGENCIES)