on Monday . Champions Italy crash out of World Cup The win over Cameroon team in Cape Town completed a comfortable group stage for the Dutch , despite not playing their best football . They will be boosted though by the return of Arjen Robben who came on as a second half substitute . Japan 3-1 Denmark Denmark , who needed to win the match to have any chance of progressing to the knockout stages , started their match with Japan brightly . Skipper Jon Dahl Tomasson saw a chance go narrowly wide in the opening minutes . But two Japanese strikes within 13 minutes of each other stunned the Danes . Honda gave Japan the lead in the 17th minute with fine free kick which flew past keeper Thomas Sorensen who appeared to be deceived by the flight of the ball . Yasuhito Endo doubled Japan 's lead in the 30th minute when he curled a beautifully executed free kick around the Danish wall and past the despairing dive of Sorenson . If the Danish keeper was possibly at fault for the first goal , there was nothing he could do with Endo 's strike which found the bottom
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Japan have comfortably beaten Denmark 3-1 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg to book their place in the last 16 of the World Cup . First half goals from Keisuke Honda and Yasuhito Endo gave the Danes a mountain to climb . They never looked like they would recover and a miserable night was completed when Shinji Okazaki added a third in the 87th minute , shortly after a Jon Dahl Tomasson 81st minute goal had given Denmark a glimmer of hope . The Danes were comprehensively outplayed by Japan who produced their most resolute and skilful display of the tournament so far . As runners up in Group E Japan will now face Paraguay in Pretoria on Tuesday for a place in quarter-finals . The three-time Asian Cup champions join Netherlands , who confirmed first place in the group by beating an already-eliminated Cameroon 2-1 in Cape Town . A first half strike from Robin van Persie and a second by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar seven minutes from time ensured Netherlands finished with a 100 percent record at the top of Group E setting up a second round clash with Italy 's vanquishers Slovakia in Durban