Despite their win against Costa Rica by a score of 4-2 in the group stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, the four-time defending champions Germany were eliminated.
On Thursday, the team was eliminated after suffering a defeat at the hands of Japan, 2-1, in the other Group E encounter. As a consequence of this outcome, Japan and Spain both advanced to the round of 16.
Both Germany and Spain jumped out to early leads in their respective games, and a win for any of those teams would have been enough to advance Hansi Flick’s team. But things turned around completely in the second half, when Japan scored two goals in rapid succession against the Spaniards.
Also, against Germany, Costa Rica tied the score, and then Juan Vargas gave the Central Americans the lead with a goal after Germany had missed the post three times.
If replacement Kai Havertz hadn’t scored twice and Niclas Fullkrug added another goal, Costa Rica would have advanced at the cost of Spain.
Germany has now been knocked out of the World Cup in the group stage in consecutive tournaments for the second time in a row. Following Japan’s victory against Spain by a score of 2-1, Germany came in third place in the rankings for Group E. Spain ended on top of the group, while Japan took second place. As a consequence of this outcome, Japan will play against Croatia in the round of 16, while Spain will play against Morocco.
The match on Thursday was particularly significant since it was the first men’s World Cup match that was officiated by a female official. Women officiated the match in three of the four different countries, with France’s Stephanie Frappart, Brazil’s Neuza Back, and Mexico’s Karen Diaz Medina serving in that capacity.
“In the first half I was disappointed and really furious with my players and how we enabled the opponent to fight back,” stated the coach of Germany, Hansi Flick. “We allowed them to come back and win the game.”
“Our aim for the first half was to score three or four goals, but we let ourselves down by making errors.” If we had taken advantage of those 16 opportunities, we would have won the game. However, the outcome of the competition was not determined for us today. At this competition, we were unable to operate in an efficient manner, which is what ultimately led to our elimination.
After suffering a defeat in their first group encounter to Japan and then salvaging a draw against Spain by the slimmest of margins, Germany entered this game on the verge of being eliminated from the competition.
With just a win required to prevent a repetition of their shocking elimination in the first round of the World Cup, Germany, whose starting lineup included seven players from Bayern Munich, pushed forward from the very beginning in the hopes of scoring an early goal to calm their nerves.
In the second minute of play, Jamal Musiala made his way into the penalty area from the left side and challenged Keylor Navas with a low drive.
At first, there was just traffic going in one direction, and it wasn’t marked. When Joshua Kimmich found Thomas Muller open, Thomas Muller could have done much more with the opportunity, but he was unable to keep his header on target.
However, Germany took the lead 10 minutes into the match when Serge Gnabry scored with a glanced header to put his team on top.
With just approximately 25 percent possession in the opening 45 minutes, Costa Rica, who needed at least a point to have a chance to advance, seldom crossed into the German half of the field. Germany had a chance to advance.
Teenager Jamal Musiala took on the whole of the Costa Rican defence on many occasions as Germany attempted to make up for their slow start to the competition.
The Germans, just as they did in the game against Japan, failed to convert the opportunities that kept coming their way.
They came close to being punished when Keysher Fuller capitalised on a pair of defensive errors, but Manuel Neuer was able to tip his effort over the crossbar. Neuer’s 19th appearance in the tournament set a World Cup record for most appearances by a goalie in a single tournament.
Musiala began the second half by hitting the post twice, which caused Germany to become more anxious as the group rankings were shown on the massive screen at Al Bayt Stadium.
When Yeltsin Tejeda of Costa Rica blasted the ball past Neuer on the rebound after he had first stopped a Kendall Waston header, Neuer was helpless and couldn’t do anything about it. This happened 13 minutes after the game had restarted.
It subsequently looked like Juan Pablo Vargas had shoved the ball over the line to put Costa Rica in the lead in the 70th minute, but the attempt was ultimately recorded as a Neuer own goal. The goal placed Costa Rica in the lead.
Havertz scored twice in the last 12 minutes as a substitute, and Fullkrug scored once in the final minute of regulation, but it was ultimately too little, too late, as Spain progressed due to a better goal differential.
