Another day, another underdog victory in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
As it was the case on Tuesday when Saudi Arabia beat Argentina 2:1, it was the same thing on Wednesday when Japan withstood Germans to come out victorious.
Manchester City’s Gundogan opened the scoring for the Germans in the first half but two substitute goals from Japan in the second half were enough to make Hansi Flick’s side look bad.
Mitoma drove forward before feeding Minamino, whose ball across the face of goal was parried away by Neuer. Doan reacted quickest to smash the ball into the back of the net, and the three Japan substitutes combined effectively to put them back on level terms at 1-1! And boy did the deserve it.
And just 8 minutes later, Itakura’s long ball from a free-kick in his own half was met by Asano, who beat Schlotterbeck with a beauty of a first touch, before darting into the box to smash a shot from the tightest of angles. The shot beat Neuer and flew into the roof of the net!!
Japan picked up their first victory against Germany (D1 L1), with nine of the 10 total goals in this fixture being scored in the second half.
Germany have lost a World Cup game in which they led at half time for the first time since 1978 (2-3 vs Austria), having gone unbeaten in their previous 21 such matches before today.
Japan came from behind to win a World Cup match for the very first time, having drawn two and lost 11 of their 13 matches when they had trailed before today.
