At 3 a.m. Beijing time on December 2, the third round of Group E of the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage will start at the same time.
In the end, Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2, Japan beat Spain 2-1, and the Blue Samurai won 3-2 and accumulated 6 points to advance to the knockout stage by beating Spain as the first in the group, and Germany were eliminated from the group for two consecutive tournaments.
In this World Cup, Japan is in the same group as Germany, Spain and Costa Rica, which is considered a proper death group, and the outside world has been optimistic about Germany and Spain in the same group.
However, in the first round of the group stage, in the unfavorable situation of conceding a goal first, Japan relied on the substitution adjustment of coach Hoichi Mori and relied on the miraculous performance of two substitutes in the second half to play a two-goal performance in 8 minutes to defeat Germany 2-1.
In the second game, the Japanese team was exposed to a big upset when the outside world was optimistic, and lost 0-1 to Costa Rica.
Facing Spain, another former World Cup champion, trailing 1-0 in the opening 11 minutes, possession was completely inferior, and Japan made adjustments, with Hisahide Ku and Yu Nagatomo being replaced by Ritsu Dochi and Kaoru Mikasa respectively.
In the 48th minute, Simon's mistake in the back was broken, and after Junya Ito competed with the opposing player's header, the ball came to the feet of Don Anru, who cut inside on the right side of the front court and fired a wonderful world wave with his left foot, Japan equalized the score, 1-1!
In the 52nd minute, the left-footed shot from the left side of the Don Anru penalty area arrived at the back point, Kaoru Mikasa saved the ball, Tanaka Bi pushed the ball into the net at close range in the middle of the goal, the linesman raised the flag to signal that Kaoru Mikata was out of the bottom line when he saved the ball, and the goal was invalid, and then VAR intervened, and the referee on duty ruled that the goal was valid, and Japan reversed the score, 2-1!
However, I am afraid that there will still be debate about whether the ball as a whole has gone out of bounds.
According to the Rules of Football Competition, the concept of the ball out of bounds is as follows: when the ball as a whole crosses the touchline or goal line from the ground or air. The former applies to out-of-bounds balls and the latter to goal kicks and goals.
As mentioned earlier, the biggest controversy about scoring goals and even this game is whether the ball as a whole is out of the bottom line before Mikasa assists.
Unfortunately, the broadcast did not give a clear picture of the television. From the naked eye, the overall possibility of the ball going out of bounds before Mikasa touches the ball seems to be greater, but the possibility of visual error is also great.
Seven minutes into stoppage time, Japanese fans in the stands prayed and waited for the referee to blow the final whistle.
At 96:58, the referee blew the end-of-game whistle, and the Japanese players on the bench rushed into the room to celebrate.
It is worth mentioning that the Blue Samurai only had 17.7% possession in the whole game, setting a new record for winning in World Cup history. After the match, Japan coach Hoichi Mori said excitedly:
"The game was very tough, the players played tenaciously and with confidence. The first half was difficult and we finished the game with a strong fight. The players believe they can do it and we try to score as many points as possible and concede as few goals as possible. The first half of the game set the stage for the victory in the second half and we all came together.
Our new goal was the quarter-finals, and now the world can see from our performances that we can reach the last eight. This game is a testament to our determination to show ourselves in the world, and we are already starting to witness a different scene. Our goal will be above the top 8. ”
An interesting phenomenon is that at the scene of the Japanese team and the Spanish team, the big screen will display the instant points table according to the goals scored in the two games at any time, and both sides can clearly understand the qualification situation.
When Costa Rica led Germany 2-1 at one point, and the points table showed that Japan and Costa Rica could qualify at the same time, Spain's bench was still a bit anxious, and they had to equalize to qualify.
Therefore, Enrique also immediately replaced Alva and Fathi. But after Germany quickly tied the scoreline, Spain seemed out of a hurry.
Obviously, the Germans are not as "calculating" as the Spaniards, if the Germans also "rot", in the absence of their own hope of promotion, they simply lose at the last moment, "complete" the Costa Rican team, pull the Spanish team together "into the water" out, who should the Spaniards go to?
In any case, the Japanese team has once again become the "light of Asia", they have magically defeated Germany and Spain to finish first in the group of death.
So far in the World Cup, two Asian teams have advanced to the round of 16, the first time since 2010 that two AFC teams have reached the World Cup knockout round, and the AFC teams that reached the round of 16 in 2010 were Japan and South Korea.