On Thursday, Japan secured their passage to the round of 16 despite having the same number of points and the goal difference as Senegal. The latter were knocked out of the tournament due to having received more yellow cards during the World Cup than the Japanese.

“This is the first [senior] World Cup where we brought in this rule… Obviously what we want to avoid is the drawing of lots. We believe that teams should go forward on their performance and what happens on the pitch, not what happens in a draw ball… We will review it after the World Cup, we will see what the feedback is, but as it currently stands we don’t see any need to change the rule that’s been put into place,” Smith told journalists.

The knockout stage will begin on Saturday, with France facing Argentina in Kazan and Uruguay playing against Portugal in Sochi.