Veteran midfielder Niko Kovac is expected to return to the Croatia line-up for Sunday's Group F encounter with Japan in Nuremberg.

The 34-year-old Hertha Berlin man was substituted after only 40 minutes of his side's opening loss to Brazil with a rib injury, but returned to training on Friday morning and should start against the Japanese.

Both teams need to win to have any hope of progressing to the second round after the Japanese lost their first game of the tournament with a 3-1 reversal against Australia in Kaiserslautern.

"Niko played his part in the session and his injury has got better and during the training session his performance was good," said assistant coach Martin Novoselac. "I think he can be ready for the Japan game."

Robert Kovac believes his sibling will be ready to face the Japanese allowing the Croatians to use their height to their advantage and capitalise on Japan's weakness at corners and free kicks.

"My brother has come back to practice so I don't think there's any problem at all," he said.

"We want to take advantage of our height and play the ball in the air a lot. We want to make sure we score from set-pieces but on the other hand we want to play a good passing game and dominate the middle of the park."

The Croatians were unfortunate to lose out to Brazil - who won courtesy of a superb long-range strike from AC Milan midfielder Kaka - and Kovac is confident the 1998 semi-finalists can create more goalscoring opportunities than in their first game.

"We think we can create more chances then we did in the Brazil game because we are much better physically than Japan," he said.

Kovac highlighted Japanese striker Naohiro Takahara, who has played his club football for SV Hamburg for the past three years, as the player to watch in the Zico-coached team.

"I know Takahara from the Bundesliga," he said. "He is a forward with quality and pace so I know we have to be cautious of him."