Qatar 2022 is truly an unpredictable tournament. A lot of upsets, blowouts, and more. Japan stunned Germany. Spain and France asserted their dominance. Croatia struggled against Morocco. Belgium narrowly edged Canada. Follow for daily updates on World Cup today’s football match here!
France vs. Australia
Result: France 4 – 1 Australia
Summary: France had done it! They are on the roll to break the ‘champions curse’. Olivier Giroud, the unexpected French hero, fires two goals to deny Australia an upset alert. Kylian Mbappe, as usual, displayed his quickness and athleticism by producing most of Les Bleus’ 7 shots on target. Craig Goodwin is the only Socceroos to score in the match, the opening goal at the 9th minute mark but after that, France unleashed their championship caliber to defend their 2018 title.
Player of the Match: Olivier Giroud 32’, 71’
Mexico vs. Poland
Result: Mexico 0 – 0 Poland
Summary: The match between Mexico and Poland will go down as a classic. Robert Lewandowski failed to deliver in the crunch after being denied in his penalty shot by Mexico’s goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa. Both teams struggled to create and produce chances that ended in a fair draw result, giving two sides a point to list in their first match in Qatar 2022. Poland have failed to win their opening game at the World Cup in their last seven appearances, that start in 1978.
Player of the Match: Guillermo Ochoa
Morocco vs. Croatia
Result: Morocco 0 – 0 Croatia
Summary: It was a thrilling goalless football between Morocco and Croatia. Both teams just produced two shots on target. Croatia had momentum in the first half. Modric and Perisic firing shots after shots but none passed the back of the net. This is the first time in 12 World Cup matches that Croatia failed to score. The first time they had a scoreless draw was against Japan in 2006. On the other side, Morocco failed to score in 53% of their World Cup matches. This is the third football full match that ended with a 0-0 draw so far in this tournament.
Player of the Match: Yassine Bounou
Germany vs. Japan
Result: Germany 1 – 2 Japan
Summary: It’s another upset of the tournament! Japan stuns Germany to claim the first three points and get their first win against Germany in the World Cup. Japan came from behind to win to cut their 13 winless matches. Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano did not let the team from the east go down without a fight. They punished Neuer by flying the ball into the roof of the net. This is another fire upset of the tournament. Germany has lost two consecutive matches against Asian teams, the last one against Korea in the 2018 World Cup.
Player of the Match: Takuma Asano 83’
Biggest Winner: Japan
This is a historic win for Japan. It was an impossible mission to beat this stacked team of Germany. Many were expecting that Japan will roll on the third spot in this veritable “group of death” — but the spirit of the underdog in this World Cup came alive and killed the opponents with frustrations. However, the familiarity of this Japan team, specially Doan and Asano is very close as they both play for German clubs. Now, Japan has an edge to advance in the knockout round and turns the attention of the world to them by surviving the “group of death”.
Biggest Loser: Germany
Germany has always been the subject of upset in the world cup. Ilkay Gundogan gave the German squad the lead in the first half. But they did not sustain it, Neuer failed to deliver game saving blocks for Germany and let the upset happen once again under their hands, with a stacked lineup and strong odds that favored them heading into the game. Germany looks like they have a reminisce on their 2018 horror, a potential group stage exit. While Japan, looking like to have an impressive campaign, reaching the knockout stage or possibly the semifinals.
Player of the Day: Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico)
The player of the day is given to Mexico’s goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa. He delivered much needed actions for El Tri to extend the World Cup frustration of Robert Lewandowski. His goal saving block is vital to Mexico’s group stage campaign, it is truly that the coming Group C matches will be unexpected with Argentina eager to make a comeback, Saudi Arabia looking for consistency, while Mexico and Poland are both eager to advance. We will witness more of Guillermo Ochoa’s heroic goal saves.
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