Group E 2022 FIFA World Cup Review: Japan Shock Germany!

Group E 2022 FIFA World Cup Review: Japan Shock Germany! Yesterday’s match saw a historic win for Japan over Germany.

Group E saw its first matches take place in Qatar yesterday afternoon and night. Germany lost 2-1 to Japan while Spain thumped Costa Rica 7-0 in their opener.

Germany 1:2 Japan – Group E

When this group was drawn, the Germans alongside Spain were tipped to be the top two to make it out the group. However, the 4-time world champions have lost to Japan in their first group match.

This means that to have a chance of making it out of this group, they must at least muster up 4 points from their next two games. They play Spain next, who beat Costa Rica 7-0.

Germany took the lead through an Ilkay Gundogan penalty. Japan equalised through Ritsu Doan before Takuma Asano scored the winner, late into the game.

“I believe it’s a historic moment, a historic victory, to say the least. If I’m thinking of the development of Japanese football, we have been building.

“From the start we decided to be aggressive; however, Germany’s aggression was higher. This was no surprise for us.

“However, our squad were very intelligent, they were smart and played well persistently. They fought really hard.” Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu told the FIFA media.

“With this defeat and zero points, we are under pressure, no question about it.” German coach Hansi Flick spoke.

“And we can only blame ourselves. We were on the right path in the first half, we had 78 per cent possession and were ahead 1-0.

“Then we had good chances in the second half that we didn’t take advantage of. Japan were simply more efficient today.

“We made mistakes that we should never commit especially in a World Cup and those are the things that we need to improve on.” He added.

Man of the Match: Shuichi Gonda (Japan). Group E 2022 FIFA World Cup Review: Japan Shock Germany!