After the Central Americans 1-0 against Japan, the German chances of reaching the knockout stages have increased again. In Group E, three teams now have three points.
With a surprising 1-0 (0-0) win against Japan, Costa Rica’s footballers have increased Germany’s chances of reaching the World Cup round of 16 – provided the DFB team scores against Spain in the evening. In addition to Japan and Spain, the Central Americans in Group E now also brought three points to their tally. Japan still has to play Spain at the end on Thursday (December 1, 2022 / 8 p.m. CET). Costa Rica meets Germany in the parallel game.
Keysher Fuller’s winning goal for the Costa Ricans came out of nowhere in the closing stages (81′). Japan were clearly superior after an uneventful first half. Despite the 7-0 defeat against Japan at the start, Los Ticos still have chances of progressing themselves.
Japan starts with concentrated Bundesliga power
Despite the opening win against Germany, Hajime Moriyasu threw up his starting XI. He relied above all on Bundesliga power: Freiburg’s Ritsu Doan came on from the start, as did Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Wataru Endo (VfB Stuttgart), Maya Yoshida (FC Schalke 04) and Ko Itakura (Borussia Mönchengladbach). VfL Bochum’s Takuma Asano, who scored the winning goal in the 2-1 win against Germany, had to return to the bench. Midfielder Hidemasa Morita also replaced Düsseldorf’s Ao Tanaka and striker Ayase Ueda in the starting line-up. Costa Rica boss Luis Fernando Suarez gave Kendall Waston and Gerson Torres the confidence to try and iron out a 7-0 loss to Spain.
“Grass chess” before the break
Japan started from a solid defense with a five-man chain. Since the Costa Ricans didn’t run headlong either, a controlled and balanced game between the penalty areas developed in the first half. The result of this “lawn chess”: long ball relays, zero chances to score. Most exciting was the yellow card against Anthony Contreras, who came too late against Yoshida and kicked Schalke’s ankle (41′). Costa Rica couldn’t, Japan didn’t want to (yet).
That changed abruptly with the restart. Moriyasu brought in two fresh players in Asano and Hiroki Ito, and Asano in particular immediately put more effort into goal. After Hidemasa Morita fired the first shot on target from 16 meters, which deserved the title (46′), Asano tested Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas with a header (48′). A free kick from Yuki Soma from 17 meters flew over the goal (63).
Fuller scores for Costa Rica
The lead for Japan was now in the air. The “Los Ticos” were almost exclusively in defensive mode. Joe Campbell’s foray into the Japanese penalty area, which ended with Endo pulling his shirt but without a penalty (74′), remained the big exception. Until the ice-cold shower for Japan. In one of the few Central American relief attacks, Fuller decided to swing from 16 meters. The ball hit the far corner and the game was turned upside down. Kamada still got the chance to equalize, but failed from close range to Navas (88th).