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via Reuters

via Reuters

Japan faced four-time world champions in their Kickoff match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. This match was the first face-to-face between two teams in FIFA WC. Germany remains unbeaten in the teams’ two friendly international games (1W, 1D). Japan is considered the underdog of this group, having potential and appearing in their seventh straight WC. Regarding World Cup appearances, Germany became the 2nd team to appear in 20 World Cups. The last one they missed was 1950.

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Germany protested the FIFA before the start of the game against Japan. They also released an official statement on their statement condemning soccer’s biggest governing body.

Contrary to everyone’s analysis, Japan made the first shot on the post, but the goal was disallowed due to the player being offside. In the 33rd minute, german midfielder Ilkay Gundogan successfully converted a penalty into a goal and gave Germany the lead.

Japan turned the tide against Germany in their FIFA WC opener

The German team in the 49th minute made another goal just before the end of 1st half. The goal, however, was disallowed after the VAR review because the ball had crossed the end line. In the first half of the game, Japan had just 19% ball possession. Germany, however, played the half like everyone expected from them.

Japan started 2nd half by changing their game plan and attacking the german goalpost back-to-back. This strategy worked and Japan leveled the goal in the 75th minute as Japanese forward Ritsu Doan made a fiery goal.

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After that Japan shocked everybody as Takuma Asano gained a lead for Japan in the 83rd minute of the game. The world saw the mammoth of football being helpless as they saw Japan making another upset of the event.

Here is how fans reacted to the comeback:

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To say that nobody expected Japan to come back after the first half would be a colossal understatement. This is the first time after 1970 that Germany lost a FIFA WC match after leading at the end of the first half.

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In other news from the World Cup, Australia got beaten by France 4-1, and Morocco – Croatia match ended in a draw with a goal. The biggest news is, however, still the mind-blowing defeat of Argentina by Saudi Arabia 2-1.