Japan manager Akira Nishino has warned his players that there is still plenty of work to do if they are to seal a place in the last 16 of the World Cup.
The Blue Samurai took a big stride towards progressing from Group H on Tuesday afternoon by beating Colombia 2-1 in their opening match.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Shinji Kagawa and Yuya Osako netted either side of Juan Quintero's equaliser as Japan capitalised on an early red card shown to Carlos Sanchez.
Japan's players celebrated their victory on the Mordovia Arena field after the match, but Nishino acknowledges that there are still tricky tests to come against Poland and Senegal.
"I said at half time that if we can keep the ball moving, we can deprive the Colombia players of their stamina," he told reporters after the match.
"Our players were aggressive from the start and I think that worked very well for us. This is just one win and three points, so we will save our celebration."
Japan had never previously won a World Cup game on European soil in six attempts.
A shock 2-1 loss to Japan will be a "bitter memory" for Colombia, coach Jose Pekerman said, but he vowed the stamina and nerve showed by the South Americans despite being a man down will propel them to victories in Group H.
"We were expecting something completely different. We were hoping to start with a victory," said Pekerman, whose side reached the quarterfinals in the 2014 World Cup and won over many spectators with their spectacular goals and salsa-dancing celebrations.
But the Argentine-born Pekerman lauded the "Cafeteros" (Coffee-makers) for holding their own after the expulsion and scoring an equaliser in the first half thanks to Juan Quintero's clever low free kick in the 39th minute.
"The positive side of all this is that you could see the team managed to rise to the occasion and managed to get a draw... that's a very good reaction," added Pekerman.
"If we can do that it shows that we have the wherewithal to move forward with the other matches and even win them. We can make up for this first defeat in the next two matches."
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