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The FIFA rankings are just numbers … Belgium’s Collapse and Japan’s Disaster
[앵커]
A big change happened in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar, which included 32 in the final.
While Japan and Morocco passed the group stage at the top of the group, ‘strong’ Belgium and Germany suffered the shock of elimination.
This is reporter Hong Seok-jun.
[기자]
Japan defeated Spain ‘Invincible Fleet’ 2-1 and progressed to the round of 16 by winning first place in ‘Deadly Group E’.
In the first game, Japan became the protagonist of the surprise by beating Germany, 11th in the FIFA rankings and 4 times World Cup winner, 2-1.
There was no guarantee that he would pass the group stage as he was held 0-1 by Costa Rica, but in the last 3 matches, he defeated Spain, ranked 7th in the FIFA rankings, who was a candidate for 1st place in the group , and continuation of ‘blue’.
With this, Japan, ranked 24th in the FIFA rankings, wrote new history by becoming the first Asian to advance to the round of 16 in two consecutive tournaments.
This is the third time in 20 years that an Asian team has passed the group stage in first place at the World Cup, following South Korea and Japan in 2002.
Germany came from behind to win against Costa Rica in the third game, but came third, suffering the humiliation of being eliminated from the group stage for two tournaments in a row.
Germany, who failed to advance to the round of 16 after losing to our national team in the last tournament, continued their bad relationship with Asia by being beaten by Japan this time.
There was also a surprise in Group F.
Morocco, ranked 22nd in the FIFA rankings, managed to pass the group stage in first place with 2 wins and 1 draw.
Morocco became the first African team to gain 7 points in the group stage to advance to the round of 16 for the first time in 36 years since Mexico.
However, ‘championship candidate’ Belgium, second in the FIFA rankings, were eliminated after being pushed to third place in the group with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss.
Belgium have been eliminated from the group stage for the first time in 24 years since the 1998 tournament in France.
Belgium, self-destructed due to internal divisions in the team, promised another four years later.
This is Hong Seok-jun from Yonhap News TV. (joone@yna.co.kr)
#Japan #Morocco #Germany #Belgium
Yonhap News TV article inquiries and reports: Kakao Talk/Line jebo23
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