Hosts and defending champions Germany were knocked out of the women's World Cup on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 by Japan after extra-time in the quarter-finals. The winning goal came in the 108th minute when Japan captain Homare Sawa put in a long-range pass and substitute Karina Maruyama drilled her shot past Germany goalkeeper Nadine Angerer.
Having won both the 2003 and 2007 editions, this is the first time Germany have lost at a women's World Cup since they were beaten 3-2 by hosts the USA in the quarter-finals of the 1999 tournament. Japan have now got beyond the quarter-finals for the first time as their previous best performance was a last-eight appearance in 1995 in Sweden.
"This is what I feared would happen," admitted Germany coach Silvia Neid. "We were off colour against the side ranked fourth in the world. We weren't able to score goals and we weren't precise enough in our execution. You always have to worry about a good counter-attack against the Japanese. It is of course very unfortunate and very sad."
Japan will now face either Australia or Sweden, who meet on Sunday, in the semi-final in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Germany suffered an early setback when key midfielder Kim Kulig headed over the bar and limped off with a knee injury after an awkward landing on three minutes. Coach Silvia Neid was forced into bringing on defender Bianca Schmidt and left-back Linda Bresonik pushed up into midfield.
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Hosts and defending champions Germany were knocked out of the women's World Cup on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 by Japan after extra-time in the quarter-finals. The winning goal came in the 108th minute when Japan captain Homare Sawa put in a long-range pass and substitute Karina Maruyama drilled her shot past Germany goalkeeper Nadine Angerer.
Having won both the 2003 and 2007 editions, this is the first time Germany have lost at a women's World Cup since they were beaten 3-2 by hosts the USA in the quarter-finals of the 1999 tournament. Japan have now got beyond the quarter-finals for the first time as their previous best performance was a last-eight appearance in 1995 in Sweden.
"This is what I feared would happen," admitted Germany coach Silvia Neid. "We were off colour against the side ranked fourth in the world. We weren't able to score goals and we weren't precise enough in our execution. You always have to worry about a good counter-attack against the Japanese. It is of course very unfortunate and very sad."
Japan will now face either Australia or Sweden, who meet on Sunday, in the semi-final in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Germany suffered an early setback when key midfielder Kim Kulig headed over the bar and limped off with a knee injury after an awkward landing on three minutes. Coach Silvia Neid was forced into bringing on defender Bianca Schmidt and left-back Linda Bresonik pushed up into midfield.
