Right on the heels of Saudi Arabia’s win over Argentina, the World Cup in Qatar saw another massive shock as Japan defeated football powerhouse Germany by 2 goals to 1. Germany went up by a goal through an ilkay Gundogan penalty in the first half and looked very comfortable for most of the match before Japan struck back.
The Japanese, who looked very passive for the first hour of the match, came to life in the last 20 minutes as they started putting pressure on the German defence. Neuer in the German goal rescued Germany with a great save when Junya Ito’s shot took a wicked deflection in the 74th minute.
However, a minute later, the great German goalkeeper was powerless to stop the Japanese as he saw his first save fall to Ritsu Doan who brought Japan level by smashing the ball into the roof of the net. Ironically, Doan plays his professional football in Germany for SC Freiburg.
Germany reacted to the equaliser by bringing on Mario Gotze, who scored the winner in the 2014 World Cup final, and Niclas Fullkrug but Japan had all the momentum at this stage and they drove home their advantage. A long ball over the top found Takuma Asano in the 83rd minute, and after controlling it, he smashed it past Neuer at the near post sparking delirium among Japanese supporters.
Just like the first goal scorer Ritsu Doan, Takuma Asano also plays his professional football in Germany for Vfl Bochum. The defeat comes as a shock for Germany who dominated large parts of the contest without driving their advantage home, leaving themselves open to a stunning comeback from Japan.
This is the second world cup in a row where Germany has started terribly since their triumph in Brazil in 2014. In Russia in 2018, Germany started their campaign with a 0-1 defeat to Mexico. They then went on to defeat Sweden by 2-1 through a 95th-minute goal by Toni Kroos before bowing out of the tournament after a 0-2 defeat at the hands of South Korea.
Germany, the second most successful side in World Cup history after Brazil, was not the first fancied team to suffer a shock defeat at Qatar 2022. Yesterday, Argentina was shocked by Saudi Arabia, who just like Japan fought back from a goal down to win 2-1.
With the highly fancied teams suffering humbling defeats in group stages, we may end up having one of the most open tournaments in recent times.
