Protest ‘won’t be punished’
THERE are no current plans to punish Germany after their players covered their mouths in a team photo to ‘convey the message that FIFA are silencing teams’.
The gesture came after the governing body threatened players wearing the OneLove armband in Qatar with yellow cards.
‘It was a sign, a message that we wanted to send out,’ said Germany boss Hansi Flick after his side’s shock defeat by Japan, whose players said they were inspired by Saudi Arabia’s win over Argentina. Japan watched the Saudis come from 1-0 down to beat Messi and Co, then did the same to Flick’s men with two late goals. Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma called it the greatest day of his life and said: ‘This moment was unbelievable for the team and for me. We watched Saudi Arabia and thought, “We could have a great game here”. It inspired me and the team.’ And he revealed Japan then went one better than they had hoped. ‘Our plan was a draw,’ he said. ‘Of course, we wanted to win so this was incredible. With everybody’s help, we created history.’
Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo added: ‘We were going for our training session and we watched the Saudis on the team coach. Their victory inspired us. I heard there is a public holiday there, so maybe today it happens in Japan!’ Germany’s Kai Havertz said: ‘The game slipped very quickly out of our hands. We need to analyse that and make it better (against Spain).’