Sane-less Germany take on upset searching Japan

The four-time World Champions Germany will take on Japan to start their 20th World Cup campaign as they will try to leave the bitter memories of their previous World Cup behind and make a fresh start with their new manager Hansi Flick.

The defending champions’ curse hit Germany duly in the 2018 World Cup as they were knocked out from the group stages. The German side has been struggling since, followed by failures in the European Championships and the Nations League.

Their early elimination from the Euros ensured Joachim Low ended his decorated tenure to be replaced by the serial winner Hansi Flick, who had won all possible trophies in his time with Bayern Munich.

Flick has given the team a fresh start and has kept his faith in the rising young stars like Jamal Musiala or Youssufa Moukoko. He also has Thomas Muller who was exiled from the national team by Low in his World Cup squad.

Germany has won all their opening games in a world cup since 1986 except for 2018 when they lost to Mexico to start their campaign. Japan on the other hand has been knocked out from the group stages in all their World Cup participation except for the 2018 edition where they were able to qualify for the round of 16, their highest World Cup success.

The Die Mannschaft are not in a good form either, they only managed to win twice in their last eight games. Japan is quite on the contrary as they won 15 out of their last 18 games to qualify for the World Cup with a record 58 goals scored.

Germany will play their natural possessional game with Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka in the midfield with Thomas Muller and Kai Harvetz up front to score goals. They will miss winger Leroy Sane who is ruled out of the squad for the Japan game due to injury.

Japan has a better defensive unit with Arsenal right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu with skipper Maya Yoshida in the heart of the defence. The blue samurais will depend on Takuma Asano to break the German defence.

The nations have faced each other twice previously, Germany won one and the other ended in a draw.

Ahead of the game, Japan manager Hajime Moriyasu said they were looking upstage Germany in their opening game.

“Germany have won the World Cup and that is our aim too -- they are role models for us,” the manager said on Tuesday. “We have a lot of feelings towards Germany but we have to treat tomorrow’s game as if we are playing any other team and just do our best.”