Coventry Telegraph

‘Big surprise’ – Japan coach hails historic win

-

JAPAN boss Hajime Moriyasu lauded a result he saw as the greatest in the team’s history after they pulled off a shock 2-1 victory over Germany in their World Cup Group E opener.

Having trailed to a 33rd-minute penalty from Ilkay Gundogan, Japan fought back to triumph at the Khalifa Internatio­nal Stadium with strikes in the 75th and 83rd minutes from substitute­s Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano, who play in Germany for Feiburg and Bochum respective­ly.

Asked afterwards if he thought the latest upset at the tournament in Qatar, a day on from Argentina’s 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia, was the greatest result in Japanese football history, Moriyasu told a press conference: “Yes, I believe it is a historic moment, a historic victory, to say the least.

“If I’m thinking about the developmen­t of Japanese football, we’ve been building up.” He added: “It’s a big surprise. “We are reaching to the global standard – and also, we of course saw the Saudi Arabia surprise win. We are showing our capability from Asian football.

“From the start we decided to be aggressive. Of course Germany’s possession was higher, but this was no surprise for us. Our players were very intelligen­t, they were smart...(and) we had opportune moments in the first half as well.

“For the second half we changed players, we tried to defend their attacks. Our players fought really hard. Maybe there was a possibilit­y to concede more goals. However, the second half we caught them up, not just a simple counter-attack but waiting and then going for the opportune moments, our players demonstrat­ed this.

“Our players played well and maybe we could show that, how Japanese players have been building up their true abilities.”

Germany failed to take a number of chances to increase their lead, which included Gundogan hitting a post and Serge Gnabry being denied three times in quick succession by goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda.

The eventual defeat made for yet further World Cup woe for the four-time winners, who had arrived in Qatar looking to bounce back from exiting the 2018 edition, at which they had been defending champions, in the group stage.

Their second group match is a crunch clash with Spain on Sunday, when Japan take on Costa Rica.

Germany boss Hansi Flick, who had overseen only one previous defeat in 16 matches since taking charge of the side in August 2021, said: “For us, not just players but the coaching staff, it’s a great disappoint­ment of course.

“We were on the right path. I think in the first half we had 78% of ball possession and were ahead 1-0. Then I think we had good opportunit­ies in the second half and unfortunat­ely didn’t take advantage of them.

“Japan were simply more efficient. We made mistakes that we should never commit, especially in a World Cup.”

 ?? ?? Japan celebrate after Takuma Asano, inset below, beats Manuel Neuer to score the winner
Japan celebrate after Takuma Asano, inset below, beats Manuel Neuer to score the winner

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom