And just when you thought we achieved peak chaos at the World Cup on Wednesday, we had even ups and downs on Thursday. All four teams from Group E — Costa Rica, Germany, Japan, and Spain — were at some point either through to the round of 16 or outright eliminated.
Be sure to check in with ESPN throughout the tournament as we bring you the latest from Qatar. Here’s what you might have missed from Thursday’s World Cup happenings, and a look ahead to what’s next on Friday.
Group E chaos: Japan, Spain in; Germany faces re-boot
At halftime of both of Thursday’s late matches, it seemed as though one of the World Cup’s more intriguing groups would fall in line as predicted: previous winners Spain and Germany would advance, while Japan and Costa Rica would go home.
By the time the final whistles blew, it was Japan topping Group E after beating Spain, with Germany (yes, the team with four World Cup trophies) joining Costa Rica on the outside looking in.
Spain initially were in control against Japan after Alvaro Morata’s early goal, with Germany also cruising over Costa Rica thanks to Serge Gnabry‘s 10th-minute score. But as we should always expect at these tournaments, tables were turned, the scripts were flipped, and chaos ensued.
Both Costa Rica and Japan came out each of their locker rooms after halftime on fire, with each side scoring two goals in their respective games, and all of sudden it was all up for grabs. For a brief spell of two minutes, 55 seconds, even Costa Rica — who had lost 7-0 to Spain but then rebounded to defeat Japan — were in the driver’s seat to qualify.
When the dust settled, it was Japan — aided by a controversial VAR decision — who were group winners after holding off Spain 2-1. Germany rallied past Costa Rica 4-2 but it wasn’t enough to overcome Spain’s superior goal difference.
What about that Japan goal?
Of particular note was Japan’s second and ultimately decisive goal. In the 51st minute, Ao Tanaka buried the ball into the net after Kaoru Mitoma cut it back from the goal-line. Initially ruled over the line when the assistant’s flag went up, VAR decided that the ball hadn’t fully crossed over and remained in play.
