One day after Saudi Arabia shocked world football by defeating championship candidate Argentina, Asian football created another shock with a victory following a similar scenario.
The players brought onto the field by coach Hajime Moriyasu after the break were extremely effective, bringing the necessary breakthrough to Japan.
The Japanese reserve player rushed to the corner of the field to share joy with Asano after striker No. 18 increased the score to 2-1 in the opening match of Group E World Cup 2022 at Khalifa Stadium, Doha on November 23.
Besides the sweet fruit of 3 important points for the goal of competing for a ticket to continue in the group of death, and the historic milestone of defeating Germany for the first time, today’s result at Khalifa Stadium also marked another important achievement for football.
The scene where coach Hansi Flick and his classmates stood still, watching the Japanese players rush onto the field to celebrate victory in extreme excitement, completely different from the impressive way Germany entered the game, and at times created the feeling that nothing could stop them from winning.
The ball is often dealt to the two sides by the German central defenders or central midfielders and then deployed back into the middle to finish, thereby creating many scoring opportunities.
Gundogan took a penalty kick to open the score for Germany in the 33rd minute. Photo: Reuters
But on a match day where Muller and his teammates lacked a bit of accuracy and luck, and Gonda caught ecstasy in the Japanese goal, Germany could not score a second goal.
Japan, in addition to the situation where striker Maeda was denied a goal because of offside at the beginning of the match, was completely outmatched in the first half, only holding the ball approximately 20% and not finishing a single shot, while suffering up to 13 shots.
From the first half, Stats Performance’s algorithms predict that in the second half, the Asian representative has only a 2% chance of winning against Germany, a 10% chance of drawing, and an 88% chance of losing this match.
Asano in a finishing situation…
… defeated Neuer, sealing a 2-1 victory for Japan in the 83rd minute. Photo: Reuters
From the 60th minute onwards, after Kaoru Mitoma and Asano entered the field, Japan began to organize more attacks, tit for tat with Germany.
Regrettably, but this failure seemed to give the Japanese players confidence that they could defeat the German defense.
Germany 1-2 Japan
This victory promises to give more strength to Japan, before playing Costa Rica on November 27 and then Spain on December 2.
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