Japan confirmed their place in the knock outs of the tournament after 20 years. He will face Croatia in the round of 16.
Al Khor (Qatar). Four-time champions Germany crashed out of the FIFA World Cup group stage for the second time in a row despite a 4-2 win over Costa Rica on Thursday night. Even this win was not enough to put Germany through to the Round of 16. Japan’s 2-1 victory over Spain in the group saw both these teams advance to the next round. Japan topped Group E. With this, Japan confirmed their place in the knock outs of the tournament after 20 years. He will face Croatia in the round-16. At the same time, Spain has also made it to the Round-16 from Group-E.
Germany coach Hansi Flick said, “I was in the ‘chasing room’ because you can imagine the frustration is so great.” In the last World Cup, as the defending champions, the German team was also eliminated from the group stage. Germany were defeated by Japan in their opening match in Qatar and needed a win at the Al Bayt Stadium and a result in the second match to go their way to progress to the next round. If the Spanish team had defeated Japan, the German team would have finished second in the group. Serge Gnabry put Germany ahead in the 10th minute with a header. Interestingly, in the second match of the group too, Spain had taken the lead against Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. But the result of both the group matches changed in the second half.
Yeltsin Tejeda equalized for Costa Rica in the 58th minute. Then in the 70th minute, an own goal by German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer put Costa Rica ahead 2–1. But Germany’s substitute Kai Havertz helped make the score 2–2 three minutes later and then put the team ahead 3–2 in the 85th minute. Another Germany substitute, Niklas Fulkrug, scored the fourth goal in the 89th minute. Japan topped Group E with six points.
She was two points ahead of both Spain and Germany. Spain progressed to the round of 16 by virtue of superior goal difference, which was played a key role in their 7–0 victory over Costa Rica. Spain will now face Morocco in the Round of 16 while Japan will take on Croatia. Germany needed five more goals to draw level with Spain. The match was also significant because Stéphanie Fraupart of France became the first female referee to officiate at the Men’s World Cup.
The moment Japan advanced to the Round of 16 🇯🇵🫶#FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 1, 2022
Japan beat Spain to qualify for Round of 16
Japan came back from a one-goal deficit and scored two early in the second half to seal a 2-1 win over Spain here late on Thursday to qualify for the Round of 16 of the FIFA World Cup Qualified O Tanaka scored the winning goal for Japan early in the second half. It took two minutes for the officials to confirm the goal via video review. For Spain, Álvaro Morata gave his team the lead in the 11th minute. But Japan secured a 1-1 draw through Ritsu Doan’s goal in the 48th minute. Japan had upset Germany by defeating Germany 2-1 in their group opener at the same Khalifa International Stadium.