Japan gets 2 late goals to beat Germany 2-1 at World Cup

Another World Cup day another World Cup shockSubstitutes Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano scored late goals Wednesday to give Japan a comefrombehind 21 victory over Germany at the World CupBoth Doan and Asano play for German clubsIlkay Guumlndogan had given fourtime champion Germany the lead with a firsthalf penalty But Doan who plays for Freiburg pounced on a rebound to equalize in the 76th minute after Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer blocked a shot from Takumi MinaminoThen Asano who plays for Bochum sprinted clear of Nico Schlotterbeck and beat Neuer from a narrow angle in the 83rd minute of the first competitive meeting between the two nationsThe match was played a day after Argentinas 21 upset loss to Saudi ArabiaBefore Wednesdays game Germanys players covered their mouths during the team photo in an apparent rebuke to FIFA following its decision to stop plans to wear armbands to protest discrimination in host nation QatarAlso read FIFA World Cup 2022 No excuses for defeat but have faith in us says Lionel MessiNancy Faeser Germanys sports minister attended the match at the Khalifa International Stadium and was sitting beside FIFA president Gianni Infantino while wearing the same iquestOne Loveiquest armband that FIFA had outlawed with its threats of consequencesIt was only the third time Germany had lost its tournamentopening game after defeats against Algeria in 1982 and Mexico in 2018 In the other World Cup openers for Germany the team had won 13 matches and drawn fourGermany outplayed Japan for much of the match with 24 attempts on goal compared to Japans 11 Despite giving away the penalty Japan goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda made a string of savesGermany next faces Spain on Sunday while Japan takes on Costa RicaGermanys buildup was fraught by protests and political statements because of Qatars human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers and members of the LGBTQ communityGermany was playing at the World Cup for the first time since its shocking groupstage exit as defending champion in 2018 while Japan is appearing in its seventh straight World Cup and is looking to reach the quarterfinals for the first timeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever