Freiburg's Ritsu Doan and Bochum's Takuma Asano helped Japan stun Germany in their opening group game of the 2022 World Cup, the Bundesliga pair firing the Samurai Blue to victory after Ilkay Gündogan's first-half penalty.

Goals: 1-0 Gündogan 33' (pen.), 1-1 Doan 75', 1-2 Asano 83' (assist: Itakura)

Japan served early notice of their intent as another Bundesliga duo, Wataru Endo and Daichi Kamada, dispossessed Gündogan, allowing Junya Ito to cross for Daizen Maeda to fire home – but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside. Germany soon took control of the game – boasting close to 80 per cent possession at one point – with Antonio Rüdiger heading wide and Joshua Kimmich testing Japan goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda with a fierce drive. The four-time world champions continued to turn the screw, and their pressure told when Gonda brought down David Raum in the penalty area after a lovely ball across from Kimmich. Gündogan made no mistake from the spot, and taking the lead only seemed to sharpen Germany's appetite. Some well-worked combinations saw Kimmich and Jamal Musiala go close, while Kai Havertz also had a goal chalked off for offside as Hansi Flick's men reached half-time with a 1-0 lead.

Germany made a blistering start to the second period, with Serge Gnabry clipping the top of the crossbar after a marauding run from Thomas Müller. Musiala could then have scored one of the goals of the tournament after shimmying his way past the entire Japan defence, but blasted over the bar. Gündogan also found the woodwork before Gonda produced two excellent saves to keep out substitute Jonas Hofmann and Gnabry. Not wanting to be outdone, Manuel Neuer then clawed out a deflected effort from Ito, but the Germany captain was powerless to prevent Freiburg winger Doan equalising with practically his first touch, after good build-up work from fellow substitute Takumi Minamino. Things went from bad to worse for Flick's side as Asano deftly controlled a long free-kick forward from Ko Itakura, shrugged off Nico Schlotterbeck and slammed home to put the Samurai Blue in front. Mario Götze, Niclas Füllkrug and Youssoufa Moukoko were all thrown on in the closing stages, and Leon Goretzka fizzed an effort just wide, but Japan's Bundesliga-powered side held on to claim a famous win.

Match stats

• Gündogan netted his first World Cup goal and 17th for Germany overall. The Gelsenkirchen native had only made one previous tournament appearance, in the group-stage win over Sweden in 2018.
• Moukoko made history as the youngest Germany player to appear at a World Cup finals, aged 18 and three days. He breaks the record held by Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (19 years and two months, 1958 World Cup).
• Germany lost their opening game for the third consecutive time at a major tournament, after the 2018 World Cup and UEFA Euro 2020.
• Doan and Asano also opened their accounts at the World Cup. Both players were making their tournament debut.
• There are no fewer than eight Bundesliga or Bundesliga 2 players in Japan's World Cup squad: Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Doan (Freiburg), Asano (Bochum), Itakura (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Endo, Hiroki Ito, (both VfB Stuttgart), Maya Yoshida (Schalke) and Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Düsseldorf).
• The furthest Japan have ever got at a World Cup is the round of 16. They progressed to that stage in 2002, 2010 and 2018.

Line-ups

Germany: Neuer (c) – Süle, Rüdiger, Schlotterbeck – Gnabry (Moukoko 90'), Kimmich, Gündogan (Goretzka 67'), Raum – Müller (Hofmann 67'), Musiala (Götze 79') – Havertz (Füllkrug 79')
Unused subs: Trapp, ter Stegen, Ginter, Kehrer, Klostermann, Günter, Bella-Kotchap, Brandt, Adeyemi 
Out: Sane (knee)
Coach: Hansi Flick

Japan: Gonda – Sakai (Minamino 75'), Itakura, Yoshida (c), Nagatomo (Mitoma 57') – Endo, Tanaka (Doan 71') – J. Ito, Kamada, Kubo (Tomiyasu 46') – Maeda (Asano 57')
Unused subs: Kawashima, Schmidt, Yamane, Taniguchi, Shibasaki, Morita, Machino, Ueda, Soma, H. Ito
Out: -
Coach: Hajime Moriyasu

As it happened!

Want more Bundesliga Action?

GET THE UPDATES!