When the World Cup draw came out, Group E was called the Group of Death. At that time, it was widely believed that Costa Rica came to accompany the prince to study, and the Japanese team might become cannon fodder... But I never thought that the Japanese team would eventually win the top spot in this group, and the qualifying drama staged a very crazy plot in the final round.
Spain and Germany scored almost on their feet in the first half, and the real-time standings were where the two teams joined hands.
But the second half changed dramatically, starting with a frantic counterattack by Japan, who went from tie to overtake in just three minutes, when the real-time basic list had become the first place in the Japanese group, Spain was six goals ahead of Germany and Costa Rica was bottom.
And Japan's anti-overtake announced the opening of a good show! After Spain trailed by only 7 minutes, Costa Rica on the other side equalized; The real-time standings turned into Japan first in the group, with Spain leading Costa Rica by 12 goal difference.
But in the 69th minute of the match, Costa Rica completed the comeback; The real-time standings became Japan first, Costa Rica second and Spain third in the group.
Judging from the content of the game at that time, Spain was clearly panicked; They started pressing on furiously, but high school striker Morata was replaced by Luis Enrique, and they really struggled to attack the position. On the other hand, the Japanese team became more and more confident, and Spain seemed to have no way to do anything, and it was the turn of the Germans to strike.
Just three minutes after Costa Rica's comeback, Germany equalized; The real-time standings are back to first place in Japan's group, with Spain back in second place in the group leading Costa Rica by six goal difference.
And in the 84th minute of the game, after Havertz overtook it; The real-time standings are back to top Japan in the group, Spain second in the group ahead of Germany by six goal difference, and Costa Rica at the bottom.
When Germany completed the comeback, the suspense of the group actually returned to the match between Japan and Spain. As long as Spain equalises, the group will be qualified by Spain and Germany. But Spain looked like a fierce attack in the final stage, but in fact, when Germany could not erase the huge goal difference over there, Spain's body told the world very honestly, they want to go to the second half to play Morocco, they want to touch Portugal in the last eight, they don't want to touch Brazil in the last eight, so how can they score?
The German team, which had pinned their hopes on the Spaniards, ended up paying the wrong thing, but they dragged Costa Rica into the water and saved Spain!