Germany lose to Ecuador, draw for Hiroki Ito’s Japan

Germany and Japan were among the nations to conclude their World Cup group stage at the World Cup on Thursday. Germany were already confirmed as winners of Group E and through to the round of 32 before they slipped to defeat against Ecuador, while Japan secured second place in Group F to book their place in the knockouts with a draw against Sweden.

Germany beaten to conclude group

Julian Nagelsmann’s team had won their opening two fixtures against Curaçao (7-1) and Ivory Coast (2-1) before taking on Ecuador. Five Bayern players featured in New York/New Jersey as Manuel Neuer, Jonathan Tah and Jamal Musiala played the full 90 minutes, while Joshua Kimmich got an hour and Aleksandar Pavlović featured for the first half. Leon Goretzka was an unused substitute.

Leroy Sané opened the scoring in the second minute, but Ecuador turned things around with Nilson Angulo’s rapid response and Gonzalo Plata’s 77th-minute winner. Despite the result, Germany still progress as group winners and will now play a third-placed team in Boston on Monday (22:30 CEST).

“We started the game well, went ahead early on but then lost the ball too often and allowed the opponent to grow. It ended up being a deserved defeat in the second half,” said captain Kimmich, whose expectation for the knockouts is that “we won’t concede one or two goals every game and minimise our losses of possession”.

Hiroki Ito played the full 90 minutes as Japan rounded off Group F with a 1-1 draw against Sweden to secure second place. Daizen Maeda’s 56th-minute opener was quickly cancelled out by Anthony Elanga as the Samurai Blue ensured they remained above the Scandinavians and will now play Brazil in the round of 32 in Houston on Monday (19:00 CEST).