Thread to discuss the football itself.
This is not a thread to discuss the hosting of the competition in Quatar.
You can discuss the hosting in the relevant thread.
Big save Neuer from Ito.
Now 1-1! Doan off the bench. They have been knocking on the door.
And now Japan are level. Nice move. Good save again from Neuer but no mistake this time with the follow-up finish.
Maybe he was right to spring the lads from the bench 😅
Doan scores from the rebound off a Minamino shot.
Japan looking lively now.
If Germany lose this, they're in trouble. You don't want to be playing Spain knowing you probably need to win.
Holy ****! Another sub goal! Germany in big big trouble!
Now this is a proper World Cup match! Go on Japan! 😁
WHAT A GOAL!
JAPAN LEAD!
Oh wait, is he onside? Yes. Goal stands. This is very interesting now.
Another massive potential shock on the cards. Japan lead 2-1. They deserve it.
Get in u beauty
More than a few issues there, but expect far, far more from a keeper than the pathetic action from Neuer
What was he waiting on ?
The shot is hit into a bit of a blind spot but still he needs to make himself a lot bigger than that.
Japan have been brilliant this half. Credit to their coach. He saw the problems and found a way to fix them. Hope they hold out. We might get a good bit of added time of course.
Rudiger meanwhile has been much worse this half. I remember he did a bit of showing off nonsense when he went for a sprint against one of the Japanese players. I think he got complacent.
Germans getting desperate looking for that
Another huge shock confirmed. Japan beat Germany 2-1.
All over! What a win for Japan. Well deserved after that second half.
Spain vs Germany just got very tasty.
Germany can have no complaints, their only goal came from the penalty spot.
An unerring eye for an irrelevant stat has our George. How many times did he tell us there that was the first time Germany had lost consecutive games at World Cup finals? Okay given the teams in question are South Korea and Japan that is significant but the 'record' would still hold if they had lost the semi-final in 2018 and to Spain in their first game in Qatar...
That was a mad 2nd half from the Japanese considering how dominant Germany were in the first half. They'll struggle without a striker though.
Jayus what happened in Germany just saw the result. Are the Japanese lads creditable dark horses ? A lot of their players seem to be on the up in general
I wouldn't call it a huge shock. Japan are solid and Germany knew the had problems going in.
Except for Rudiger apparently, he looked like he was auditioning for Riverdance. The eejit.
Asian football in general seems to be on the up, Saudi and Japan have some really technically brilliant footballers.
Add in high workrate to the technical ability and any team will have to play well to beat them.
Depending on how things pan out in the Belgium group, Japan could end up doing very well if they finish second and Belgium do the same. Potentially they could face Croatia, Morocco or Canada in the last 16, and Uruguay in the quarters. Whoever tops Japan’s group will likely face Brazil in the quarters and that’s probably the end of the road for whoever that is.
I won’t be writing Costa Rica off either, while they clearly aren’t as good as the 2014 side that got as far as the quarters, Navas is still a world class keeper and that’s so often the difference between defeats and draws in international football. They could frustrate Spain if they can keep it goalless into the second half.
I know nothing about Costa Rica anyway - except Bananas. But could Spain slip up….?
Spain going the strikerless route… feels like we might be heading for another game with ten thousand passes but no goals at the end of it.
Well done RTE with their "release Rodri" tagline 🤣
Karma's a b1tch. Poor auld Didi was highly embarrassed for his fellow countryman
Who is the co-commentator on RTE alongside Des Curran for the Spain-Costa Rica match?
Alan Cawley
