Germany is playing a “life or death” match once morest Spain, on Sunday, at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor to compensate for the shock of the loss once morest Japan, where goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and his companions must do their best to bring down the charming “La Roja”, in the second round of the World Cup Group E competition. Qatar in football.
The two teams started the football match in different circumstances. While Germany, the four-time defending champion, fell from its perch with a historic loss once morest Japan, despite its lead with the goal of Ilkay Gundogan from a penalty kick (1-2), Spain achieved following 3 hours a historic victory that is its largest in the World Cup finals. Seven clean world in front of Costa Rica.
Victory qualifies Spain if Costa Rica fails to beat Japan, Japan qualifies if Germany fails to beat Spain, and if Germany loses, it will be eliminated if Costa Rica fails to beat Japan.
Wounded Germany hopes to shake off the dust of Japan’s nightmare, and before that the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when it bid farewell to the group stage following losing to South Korea, followed by the European Nations League and its harsh loss once morest Spain 6-0 in 2020.
Germany is aware of the pressures on its shoulders before the summit of this group in a decisive victory that revives its hopes of qualifying for the final price, while the loss will be the final blow to its hopes, but despite the decline in the performance of “De Manshaft” in the recent period, the young offensive line led by Kai Havertz is able to decipher Spanish Defense Code.
But the most important question remains: Can Germany transcend its wounds and put the loss of Japan behind its back, while it is used to reaching the furthest stages in major tournaments, and it is the only one whose titles were distributed in the World Cup in the fifties, seventies, nineties and the third millennium.
Veteran striker Thomas Mueller expressed the enormity of the loss once morest Japan, saying, “This cannot happen to us. It is absurd that we are now standing here and we have been defeated.”
Before the start of the match, German players gagged their mouths during the official photo, to protest once morest the refusal of the International Federation (FIFA) to allow them to wear armbands in support of homosexuals.
German national team coach Hansi Flick threatened his key players that none of them guarantee his position, and when asked if Joshua Kimmich would play a key role in defense, he confirmed that his priority was limited to choosing the “best” 11 players for the match that “the Spaniards will play in the same way,” as he promised his Spanish counterpart. Luis Enrique following the sweeping victory over Costa Rica.
And he continued in a press conference, Thursday, “You must understand that we discuss every issue related to people and every position. We do this before every match. Our task as a coaching staff is to form the best possible team.”
And before leaving the World Cup in Russia 2018 and relinquishing the title by leaving the first round, Germany went at least to the semi-finals in all the versions it played since 2002, but now it faces the danger of falling at the first barrier for only the third time in its history, following 1938 and 2018.
Flick was criticized for his options, especially his involvement in Borussia Dortmund’s central defense Niclas Sule, who thwarted the offside trap and allowed Takuma Asano to score the winning goal for Japan, in the right-back position.
But Flick saw that the main problem was the lack of efficiency in front of the Japanese goal, saying, “When you get two or three dangerous chances, you have to decide the match (…) We lacked effectiveness.”
He confirmed that winger Leroy Sanneh, who was controversially excluded from the 2018 World Cup by former coach Joachim Loew, may return once morest Spain following he missed Japan’s loss due to a knee injury, explaining, “He is training alone and this is positive.”
Young squad
On the other hand, Enrique has proven over the past years that team play is more effective than the individual skills of star players, so he hopes that the Qatar stadiums will be an opportunity for the success of his ideas.
Spain has enough talent to upset Germany, but midfielders Pedri and Gavi must be at the top of their game if they want to collect three points once more and reach the second round early.
Gavi (18 years and 100 days) became the youngest scorer in the history of his country during the World Cup, breaking the previous record of Raul (20 years and 351 days) in the 1998 edition.
Enrique, who abandoned the heart of the veteran historical defense, Sergio Ramos (36 years), summoned a young squad that proved successful once morest Costa Rica, destroying goalkeeper Keylor Navas through Dani Olmo (11), Marco Asensio (21), Ferran Torres (31 penalty kicks and 54). ), Gavi (74), Carlos Soler (90) and Alvaro Morata (90 + 2).
The numbers are in favor of “Samurai”
On the other hand, Japan placed itself in a comfortable position to reach the second round, similar to three trips in the third millennium (2002, 2010 and 2018), before its second match once morest Costa Rica.
Coach Hajime Moriyasu described Japan’s victory over Germany as “a historic moment and a historic victory”, while Costa Rica also wrote its name in the historical records following suffering the biggest loss in the World Cup.
It is the first time that Costa Rica has played an entire match without a single shot, whether between the three woods or outside it, since its similar lackluster display once morest Brazil in the 1990 World Cup in the United States.
The Japanese and Costa Rican teams met in five unofficial matches, while the numbers tend to be “Samurai Blue” with 4 victories, including winning 3-0 in September 2018.
Costa Rica is playing in the finals for the third time in a row, hoping to repeat the achievement of the 2014 World Cup when it reached the quarter-finals.
Coach Luis Fernando Soares’ men were the last to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, which they opened with a historic 7-0 loss once morest Spain.
Costa Rica plays its last match once morest Germany, so it is difficult to make an impression in a difficult group, hoping to reflect a positive image once morest Japan.
And France Press reported that when the World Cup draw was drawn on the first of last April, the Germans remembered that tragic Andalusian evening on November 17, 2020 at the “La Cartuja” stadium in Seville, behind closed doors (due to the repercussions of the Corona virus pandemic).
Months following Lionel Messi’s humiliating Barcelona fell 8-2 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, Spain feared another humiliation in front of a German power.
But “La Roja”, with young and renewed elements, with coach Luis Enrique, had no difficulty disrupting the German machines.
With a header by Alvaro Morata (17) and Rodri (38), a hat-trick by Ferran Torres (33, 55, 71) and a final goal by Michael Oyarsabal (89), Spain inflicted Germany’s first loss in more than a year and one of its biggest defeats in history.
And we must return to a friendly match once morest Austria in 1931 (6-1) to see “De Manshaft” fall by this difference, while it suffered the largest defeat in an official tournament.
This victory came once morest a star-studded Germany, starting with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, passing by defender Niklas Sule, Toni Kroos, Ilkay Gundogan, Leon Goritska in the middle, Serge Gnabry, Timo Werner and Leroy Sanneh in attack.
“It’s painful. They showed us how to run and how to defend,” said Kroos, Real Madrid’s Spanish midfielder.
As for Neuer, he considered, “It is very disappointing for all of us. We did not all rise to the level of the match.”
This loss accelerated the departure of coach Joachim Loew, although not immediately, who led the national team to the 2014 World Cup title in Brazil following he took over in 2006.
The prestigious Bild newspaper headlined, “Love should submit his resignation,” asking regarding his options, following he abandoned the trio of Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels following the team’s sudden exit from the first round of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Four months later, in March 2021, Loew announced that he would leave the machines following the European Cup in the summer, from which Germany exited in the 16th round once morest England.
Whatever the elements present now, led by coach Hansi Flick, who threatened all the mainstays to change them following the shocking fall once morest Japan, hours before La Roja’s historic 7-0 victory over Costa Rica, the memory of that dark fall evening is still fresh in German minds, and perhaps more so in German minds. Spanish mind.
