In yet another shocking upset, Japan pulled off an epic victory over former and 4 time world champions Germany in match 10 of the tournament after a stunning second half resurgence by the Japanese team at the Khalifa International Stadium.
Even though the Germans had a rather forgettable 2018 world cup in Russia, where they couldn’t even go past the group stages, they were still the natural favorites heading into this match given their historic record in world cups and international football. Japan on the other hand have shown an exponential growth in their performance on the World Cup level in the last 2 decades, playing exceptionally well in the 2018 world cup, reaching the knockout stages that even Germany could not do. So, these facts itself made this an interesting encounter to witness.
The match began with some high-octane action as Japan quickly went into attack mode against the Germans, and just 5 minutes into the match, Japan get their first corner kick. A brilliant counter by Maeda in the 9th minute allowed Japan to score the first goal of the match, but the referee raised the flag to signal an offside. Germany got lucky here, but they were clearly issued a warning by the Japs! It took a few minutes for Germany to buck up, and they were soon able to create a scoring opportunity through a free kick. Joshua Kimmich shoots a good cross which is well received by Antonio Rudiger, but he goes just wide off the post.
The action continues as the timer has gone past 30 minutes and the scoreboard still reads 0-0. 31 minutes into the first half, Japanese goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt commits a foul allowing Germany to get a penalty. Ilkay Guendogan decides to take the shot and delivers, as he sends the ball past Schmidt to score the first goal of the match, giving the Germans a much needed lead. The first half extended into 6 minutes of extra time where Kai Havertz seemed to have scored the second goal for the Germans, but it was reviewed and called offside. The first half ends with Germany leading 1-0.
7 minutes into the second half (52 minutes), Musiala glided across the German defender on his quick feet and got himself in the perfect position to score, but failed to get the shot on target. In the 60th minute, Guendogan came extremely close to scoring his second of the match but it hit the post. Japan quickly began a counterattack that put Germany in a defensive position. The 75th minute saw Japan get their first goal as Ritsu Doan scores, which is quickly followed by the second Japanese goal by Takuma Asano. Japan have taken a shocking lead with only a few minutes left in the match.
7 minutes were added after 90 minutes and the Germans were desperately fighting back to score at least an equalizer, but that just didn’t happen as Japan did not let the control slip out of their hands which they valiantly gained. The referee blows the final whistle and the scoreboard reads 1-2 as Japan edged past Germany to secure all three points in its tournament opener.
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