Doha, November 23 (QNA) - The players of the Japanese national team expressed their happiness with the important victory they achieved over the German national team (2-1), this evening in the first round of group matches within the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 finals, considering that the victory of the Saudi national team over Argentina yesterday gave them motivation and confidence in themselves to win today.
The players stressed in press statements after the match that the victory was deserved after they gave a strong performance and did not give up when they were late with a goal in the first half, considering that the victory over Germany represents a strong motivation to continue and progress towards qualifying for the second round.
The player Kaoru Mitoma said that the victory over Germany at the World Cup was great, although the match was difficult, especially after being late with a goal, pointing out that many did not expect the return of the Japanese national team in the match, but the players believed in their abilities and played hard until the last minute.
He added that the surprise achieved by the Saudi national team yesterday by defeating its Argentine counterpart, made the Japanese players confident in themselves, pointing out that they played with the Saudi national team in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers Qatar 2022, which is one of the wonderful teams, and includes a distinguished group of players, and they have defensive hardness.
In turn, Yoshida Maya agreed with his colleague Kaoru that the Saudi victory over Argentina gave the Japanese national team the confidence to go into today's match strongly in order to win, considering that the victory came thanks to the lack of despair after being late with a goal, and adherence to the instructions of the coach, who demanded the players at halftime, to speed up and put more pressure on the German players and prevent them from building attacks.
He considered that the changes made by the coach in the latter half of the second half contributed to making the difference in favor of his team, pointing out that the team created many chances, and through this he was able to equalize and then score the winning goal.
Yoshida refused to call Japan's victory over Germany a surprise, and said that Japan played hard and worked hard throughout the 90 minutes, and the victory was a reward for them, noting that the national team will start tomorrow in the rehabilitation and hospitalization processes, especially since there are two strong confrontations waiting.
Takumi Minamino, the substitute player who made the difference, expressed his happiness with the victory over Germany, pointing out that the victory will be the motivation to continue giving in the next two matches in order to qualify. Minamino stressed that all the players did their best and deserved to win the match, while adhering to the coach's plan, defending strongly and putting pressure on the German players throughout the match. (QNA)