• Japan defeated Germany 2-1 in the World Cup
• Akuma Asano scored the dramatic game-winning goal for Japan
• Samurai Blue are currently in the driver’s seat in Group E

On Wednesday, Japan defeated Germany 2-1 in the World Cup, shocking a team that had been expected to advance.

Germany’s whole starting lineup had protested before the game even started. In the 84th minute, Takuma Asano intercepted a long ball, entered the German box alone, ducked a defender, and fired a shot from close range to give Japan the victory. Despite some frantic activity around Japan’s goal and a shaken German team trying to get something going in the final minutes plus seven added on, they were unable to score.

Japan pulled off a stunning upset at the 2022 World Cup by defeating Germany 2-1 at the Khalifa International Stadium. Akuma Asano scored the dramatic game-winning goal for Japan after coming off the bench.

The winger, who plays for VfL Bochum in the German Bundesliga, had a significant impact on a game that had seen Japan’s substitute Ritsu Doan equalise the score 15 minutes from the end of the match after Germany’s Ilkay Gundogan had given Germany the lead with a penalty kick in the first half.

That gave Asano enough time to latch onto Ko Itakura’s long ball forward and execute a sublime piece of control – reminiscent of Dennis Bergkamp’s performance for the Netherlands against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup – and score past Manuel Neuer, which sparked wild celebrations among the blue sections of the stadium.

Before the game took a dramatic turn for the worst, it appeared that Germany playmaker Jamal Musiala would be thrust into the public eye. The 19-year-old had put on a fantastic exhibition of brilliance in attack while Die Mannschaft was in the lead, and it appeared that the game was going to do just that.

However, Japan’s great replacements rewrote the script, and Samurai Blue are currently in the driver’s seat in Group E.

Lineups:

Germany (4-2-3-1, right to left): 1. Neuer (GK) — 23. Schlotterbeck, 15. Sule, 2. Rudiger, 3. Raum — 6. Kimmich — 21. Gundogan, – 14. Musiala, 10. Gnabry, 13. Muller – 7. Havertz

Japan (4-3-3, right to left): 12. Gonda (GK) — 19. Sakai, 4. Itakura, 16. Yoshida, 5. Nagatomo — 7. Tanaka 6. Endo, 14. Ito — 15. Kamada 18. Kubo, 25. Maeda

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