Doha: After registering a shock win over Germany, Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said the match against the four-time champions was tough and they had to work hard till the final whistle.
Japan produced a major upset to beat four-time champions Germany 2-1 in their FIFA World Cup Group E match at the Khalifa International Stadium on Wednesday.
SkySports quoted Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu as saying, We wanted to start playing aggressively, we wanted to dominate the game. But Germany is very strong so we needed to defend consistently and take our chances, and that’s what we did.
In the past, we might have lost but now our players are playing in Germany and Europe, and they have learned a lot from that. We needed to work hard till the final whistle and we were able to grab our opportunity, he said.
Gundogan gave Germany a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute of the match by putting the ball directly into the goal through a penalty kick. The Germans were leading 1-0 in the first half, but Japan came back strongly in the second half. Ritsu Doan in the 75th minute and Takuma Asano in the 83rd minute put their side ahead 2–1 for Japan and this score proved to be decisive in the end.
