Spirited Japan complete come back in win against Germany

After coming back from a goal down to defeat four-time champion Germany with an astonishing 2-1 victory, Japan began their FIFA World Cup in stunning manner, marking their seventh consecutive appearance in the championships in style.

This World Cup has been dogged by controversy, and Germany made headlines even before the first ball was hit when the starting lineup covered their mouths in opposition to FIFA’s prohibition on any national team captain electing to don the “OneLove” armband.

When David Raum was clumsily hauled down in the area by Shichi Gonda, Hans Flick’s team seized the chance to break the score when Gündoa successfully converted the resulting penalty. This match put an end to a tedious pattern after three group stage games went scoreless in the previous 24 hours. With Kai Havertz.

Jamal Musiala was the youngest Nationalelf player to feature at a WC since Karl-Heinz Schnellinger in 1958, and he nearly added his name to the scoresheet after the break when he weaved his way through the Japan defence, but shot just over the target. Musiala then turned provider for Gündoğan, whose attempt clipped the post as Japan became increasingly under pressure.

Manuel Neuer had largely been a spectator up to this point, but showed his class with an outstanding save to deny Junya Ito before Hiroki Sakai blazed his rebounded effort over the bar. The warning signs were there as Flick’s men failed to put the game to bed, and Ritsu Dōan sent the Samurai Blue fans into raptures when he slotted home a loose ball after some brilliant link-up play involving Kaoru Mitoma and Takumi Minamino. Less than 10 minutes later, Takuma Asano latched onto an innocuous-looking long ball forward and rifled home a finish past Neuer to seal their first-ever win over a shocked Germany.

It was a result to rival Saudi Arabia’s shock 2-1 win over Argentina the previous day, and ended Germany’s 21-match unbeaten run in WC matches when leading at HT, after failing to exorcise the ghosts of their 2018 group stage exit.