Japan sweeps Germany out of their own stadium. © APA/afp / RONNY HARTMANN

Next embarrassment: Germany goes down against Japan

The German national soccer team has thoroughly botched the start of the 2024 home European Championship season.

September 09, 2023

From: dpa/dl

The DFB team around new captain Ilkay Gündogan lost the test match on Saturday evening in Wolfsburg against World Cup shock Japan deservedly 1:4 (1:2) and has now been without a win for five games. The pressure on national coach Hansi Flick has increased enormously again before the meeting with runner-up world champion France next Tuesday in Dortmund.

With the score 0-1 in the 11th minute, Antonio Rüdiger unfortunately deflected a shot from Junya Ito. Leroy Sané managed to equalize after a nice combination (19th), but Ayase Ueda gave the guests the lead again just three minutes later. Bochum's Takuma Asano (90') and Ao Tanaka Tanaka (90'+2) scored the further goals late on. Japan had already defeated Germany at the World Cup in Qatar and ensured that the DFB team was eliminated from the preliminary round.

Experiments don't work again

The experiment with Joshua Kimmich as a right-back moving into the build-up game and Nico Schlotterbeck on the left failed before it had really started. The interim equalizer by Leroy Sané (19th) did not bring any security. Japan could have scored more goals early on, goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen made several good saves.

Hansi Flick is heavily counted. © ANSA / FILIP SINGER

After a turbulent 20 minutes, there was no longer any sign of Flick's calmness, optimism and confidence that had radiated in Wolfsburg in the previous days. He stood there on the sidelines, his expression a mixture of anger and horror. And the fans who had hoped so much for a more stable German team could hardly believe it: 1:2 was written on the scoreboard. So this is how the “core team” announced by Flick plays for the home European Championship?