Germany vs Japan Football Match 23 Now 2022
Germany get their World Cup campaign up and running on Wednesday afternoon when they face Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
The opening match of a competitive-looking Group E will be the third time these two nations have played each other, with the previous two clashes both coming in friendlies.
Die Mannschaft are unbeaten against Japan in both of those previous matchups and will be overwhelming favourites to collect all three points on Wednesday
Match stats
- Neuer (114 caps) is sixth in Germany’s all-time appearance list. Müller (118) could overtake former teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger (121) at the tournament to go fourth.
- Musiala has one goal in 17 senior Germany outings to date; he has started six and been substituted in 11 times.
- Only Brazil (five times) have lifted the World Cup trophy more often than Germany (four).
- This is Kamada’s first World Cup appearance, but he hit three goals and two assists in seven qualifying games.
- The Frankfurt star is one of eight Bundesliga players in Japan’s World Cup squad, alongside Doan, Endo, Ko Itakura (Gladbach), Takuma Asano (Bochum), Hiroki Ito (Stuttgart), Yoshida (Schalke) and Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Düsseldorf).
- The furthest Japan have ever got at a World Cup is the round of 16, having progressed to that stage in 2002, 2010 and 2018.
Probable teams
Germany: Neuer (c) – Kehrer, Süle, Rüdiger, Raum – Kimmich, Goretzka – Hofmann, Musiala, Gnabry – Havertz
Out: Sane (knee)
Doubtful: –
Coach: Hansi Flick
Japan: Kawashima – Sakai, Yoshida (c), Ito, Nagatomo – Endo, Shibaski – Kubo, Kamada, Minamino – Maeda
Out: –
Doubtful: –
Coach: Hajime Moriyasu
