Japan pulled off a superb performance in Saturday night’s friendly at the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg, as they thrashed Germany 4-1 in a result that placed further pressure on beleaguered Der Panzer boss Hansi Flick.
Junya Ito opened the scoring in the 11th minute with shot that deflected off Germany defender Antonio Rudiger, before eight minutes later Leroy Sane drew things level for the hosts.
Ito then turned from scorer to provider in the 22th minute, feeding Ayase Ueda who fired home Japan’s second of the night with a shot that crept past Marc ter Stegen and into the low right corner.
Japan were the much better side throughout much of the encounter and should’ve sealed the game earlier through efforts from Ueda, Daichi Kamada, and Kaoru Mitoma, however it took the Samurai Blue until injury time to truly put the game to bed.
As the clock struck 90, substitute Takefusa Kubo nicked the ball off Robin Gosens before setting-up fellow substitute Takuma Asano for a simple tap-in that extended Japan’s advantage.
And the game was settled then and there in the second minute of injury time. Once again it was Kubo who became the inspiration behind the goal, angling in a cross from the right flank that was headed beyond Ter Stegen by yet another substitute, Ao Tanaka.
The win was Japan’s second over Germany in the past 10 months or so, with the Samurai Blue having edged out Der Panzer 2-1 in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Defeat placed even more pressure on Germany manager Flick, who had won only 12 of his 25 games since replacing Joachim Low back in August of 2011. Der Panzer are also currently in wretched form as of late, winning only three of their last 12 games – against Oman in a friendly, Costa Rica in the World Cup, and Peru in another friendly.