Tashkent: Tomoaki Watanbe’s solitary strike saw reigning champions Japan make a successful start to the defence of their AFC Futsal Championship crown on Thursday, but they were forced to work hard for their 1-0 Group Dwin over Qatar. In front of a vocal band of Japanese supporters at Uzbekistan Stadium, Japan made the brighter start with the impressive Katsutoshi Henmi forcing a sharp, low, save from Abdulrahman Mohsin in the first minute before Tomoki Yoshikawa saw his shot crash into the underside of the bar a minute later. Qatar responded, though, and Lucas Oliveira made Yushi Sekiguchi work to deny his 4th minute effort and then Flavio danced his way past several Japanese players with only a desperate late tackle preventing him from scoring. The Qatari resistance held until the 16th minute when they were paid for a momentary lapse of concentration. Henmi was left unmarked in space just inside the Qatari half and with the defence retreating he was able to guide a shot towards goal that Watanabe got the faintest touch to as Mohsin was heading in the opposite direction. Kaoru Morioka’s effort was well saved by Mohsin as the half wore on and then Qatar had one final push to try and earn a point. Over the final three and a half minutes the side initiated a series of power-plays as Japan sat deeper and deeper, inviting them to shoot. The chances they did muster though were either wide of the goal or fairly easily saved as Japan held on for the narrow victory.