Japan 2-1 Spain
Japan beat Spain 2-1 to make it into the knockout round today at the Khalifa International stadium in Doha, Qatar.
Spain would start off well by scoring first in the 11th minute. Álvaro Morata was able to outjump his defender and head the ball down and into the goal from inside the six-yard box.
Japan knew that a win here was the only sure way to make it into the next round. They pulled themselves back up and tied the game in the 48th minute. As a result of Spain’s poor attempt to play the ball out of the back, Ritsu Doan was left with a shot from right outside the box. He would shoot toward the near post and all the Spanish keeper could do was push it further into the right side of the goal.
While Spain was still in shock, Japan was able to get their go-ahead goal in the 51st minute after Kaoru Mitoma barely kept the ball in, playing it back to Ao Tanaka, who threw himself at the ball and hit it in with his knee.
This second goal took a while to confirm because VAR had to conduct an extensive review. From the angles that showed on tv, it looked like the ball was clearly out of bounds, but the rule is if even a fraction of the ball is still in line with the touchline, then it still counts as inbounds. After the review, VAR decided that the ball was still in and that the goal counted.
Germany 4-2 Costa Rica
Germany would win but to no avail as they were eliminated today at the Al-Bayt stadium in Al Khor, Qatar.
Germany and Costa Rica had a difficult game ahead of them. They knew that a win alone meant nothing. They had to hope that Spain and Japan would tie in order for one of them to make it to the next round.
Germany would strike first in the 10th minute thanks to Serge Gnabry, who looped his header out of Keylor Navas’ reach and into the right-side netting. Since Germany was ahead and, at the time, Spain and Japan were still tied, this meant that Germany would make it through.
Costa Rica would come back and score two goals thanks to Yeltsin Tejeda and an own goal by Manuel Neuer in the 58th and 70th minutes respectively. At the time, this now meant that Costa Rica had a chance at making it through.
Germany would then score three more goals to take a 4-2 lead. Kai Havertz scored in the 73rd and 85th minutes and Niclas Füllkrug in the 89th. By now, in the other match, Japan was ahead 2-1 which meant that even though Germany was back in the lead, they would not qualify.
With the Japan vs. Spain game ending first, Germany and Costa Rica knew minutes before their game ended that they had both been eliminated.
These two matches were being played simultaneously, which resulted in one of the most exciting 90 minutes of soccer I have seen in a long time. Throughout the duration of these games, all four teams were in a position to qualify at a different time; one of which would have completely flipped the table, seeing Japan and Costa Rica going through. In the end, it would be Spain and Japan making it onto the Round of 16.
As a result of these matches, Japan will be facing Croatia, and Spain will be facing Morocco in the Round of 16.
Photo: Álvaro Morata – Shutterstock – user: Marco Iacobucci Epp – ID: 494639311
