Germany faced a Japan team who will be wanting to go into this game with the desire to cause another upset and after watching what happened to Saudi Arabia yesterday that proved if you believe in yourself and you will win the game.
Germany have lost their first group game again at a world cup for the 2nd time after a very good Japan scored 2 goals in the last 20 minutes to give them the shock result.
Japan started off the game the better side for the opening few minutes they played some free flowing football and moving it about the pitch very well and this also then involved Celtic player Daizen Maeda putting the ball in the back of the net only for the linesman to raise his flag to signal for an offside.
Then after this Germany took a foot hold and started to play the football that we all know they are capable of. Germany’s Left back David Raum enjoyed a lot of the ball and put pressure on the Japanese Left Back and he did that for quite awhile and then put pressure on the team and that pressure told after Raum found himself in the box and was brought down by Japan keeper Shuichi Gonda and got the penalty and then Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan slotted it home to put the Germans 1-0 up after they dominated the ball.
The only sort of stand out play was just before half time when Germany’s Joshua Kimmich had a long-range effort that tested Gonda again but he made a diving save down to his right-hand side.
Then just after half time Germany managed to edge the game like they had done in the first half with regards to the off the ball movement and the movement of the players and this meant they pinned Japan back into their own half. Then both Hofmann and Gnabry tested Gonda but yet again he made to very good saves to keep the Japanese within reach.
Then the Japan manager made some substitutions after he saw that his teams energy was going down after defending for a lot of the game and he made some subs which made a massive difference and added some extra energy.
After the subs Japan enjoyed a lot of the ball and the Germans seemed to be quite sloppy with the ball and seemed to give the ball away far too much. Japan played a ball into the box from out wide after some good team play and Neuer saved it be it parried and fell for Ritsu who made sure that he fired the ball home to equalise for the Japanese side.
Then not a long after that the Japanese found the ball in the back of the net after a long ball was played over the top and found Takuma Asano and managed to hold off Schlotterbeck and hen fired the ball into the back of the net from a tight angle and sent the Khalifa international stadium into complete pandemonium and give Japan the lead and win. This is the first time in Japan history that they have successfully managed to beat Germany.
Man of the Match: Shuichi Gonda