Germany vs Japan LIVE: World Cup 2022 team news and line-ups as Jamal Musiala starts

Germany: Neuer; Schlotterbeck, Sule, Rudiger, Raum; Kimmich, Gundogan; Gnabry, Muller, Musiala; Havertz

Japan: Gonda; Sakai, Itakura, Yoshida, Ito, Nagatomo; Endo, Tanaka; Kubo, Kamada, Maeda

It’s a terrific sight at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha as the two starting XIs make their way onto the pitch!

Now time for the national anthems!

Germany are looking to bounce back after a disappointing two tournaments, following a group-stage exit four years ago in Russia and a last-16 exit at Euro 2020.

For Japan, who were so close to knocking out Belgium in 2018, they will be targeting an upset in Doha!

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has said he would wear the multi-coloured ‘OneLove’ armband at the soccer World Cup 2022 and see what happened, but he took care to add it was not for him to decide what national team captain Manuel Neuer does.

Habeck’s comments late on Tuesday came amid a row over the symbol Qatarwhere homosexuality is illegal.

Asked by broadcaster ZDF whether players should wear the armband, Habeck replied: “I am not the media advisor of the DFB (German football association) and I am not Manuel Neuer but the opportunity is there.”

“I’m a politician trying to do my job properly, but what would happen if it happened now? I would like to know and I would take my chances,” he added.

The comments come after soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, cracked down on players wearing the armbands in support of diversity at this year’s World Cup.

In response, Rewe, one of Germany’s biggest supermarket chains, scrapped its advertising campaign with the DFB.

Germany fans are hoping Bayern Munich wunderkind Jamal Musiala will slash their pre-tournament title odds once the World Cup starts, with the teenager having quickly become a key player in Hansi Flick‘s team.

Few would have thought just two years ago that Musiala, with his light frame, medium height and innocent demeanour, would become one of the leaders of the Germany team for the 2022 World Cup and Bayern’s second-top scorer so far this season.

A Germany and England youth international, Musiala opted to play for his birth country at senior level with then Germany coach Joachim Low giving him his first start last year.

In some 18 months he has become indispensable with his exceptional reading of the game in midfield, his speed, change of pace and turns and his goalscoring ability proving crucial.

“Jamal has this completeness that is just so good for us as a team,” Flick has said about the player he knows since his Bayern coaching days.

Nicknamed Bambi by his Bayern team mates for his youthful appearance, Musiala is anything but a deer caught in the headlights when he is on the pitch, having already bagged seven goals and four assists in the Bundesliga so far.

While he enjoys his attacking midfield role he is equally at ease as a winger or even as a defensive midfielder.

Arriving at Hamburg airport in their matching light gray jackets, green shirt and yellow ties, the East Germany squad and management team were all smiles. The departure to their camp in Quickborn was delayed when a replacement bus needed to be found as the one emblazoned with “DDR” (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and flag designated to pick them up went ‘missing’. Given West Germany did not even recognize the DDR as a proper country — the national tabloid Bild even referred to the East in inverted commas — this was hardly a surprise. No doubt the slight was documented in forensic detail by one of the tourists.

At their base for the first group stage, agents of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany’s Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi, among the entourage relaxed their surveillance a touch, presumably overwhelmed by the chance to sample some of the pleasures of the West. With this new-found freedom, a trip to the Reeperbahn was organized by the owners of the Sporthotel in Quickborn. A night on the tiles beckoned.

The West German hosts even offered everyone from the East German delegation a free TV. The officials declined — fraternisation with the West was a strict no-no, more so the receiving of illicit Western goods — but some of the players noticed that all the televisions were gone by the time they left.

A 2-0 win over Australia in the East Germany’s first ever game at a World Cup finals was followed four days later by a 1-1 draw with Chile in their second. A somewhat unexpected scoreless draw between their first two opponents, mere hours before kick off, had meant that the pressure was off by their third. Both West Germany and East Germany had already qualified for the knockouts, just leaving the thorny issue of the most politically charged football match of all time to traverse.

Coaches of the DDR-Oberliga teams were invited to attend the all-German clash, but Hans Meyer, coach of Carl-Zeiss Jena, was notable by his absence. “On the day, I had stomach pains and had to stay home,” Meyer later recalled. Meyer is well-known in Germany for his sarcasm and irony — he certainly wasn’t ill on the day of the game.

He had turned down the offer on the grounds that he had to catch a train from Gera at 4am, then “travel with the fans to Hamburg, wave my hammer and sickle flag, get stared at by the other fans like some exotic creature, get straight back on the train after the game, and then get back home in the middle of the night”. He saw straight through the absurdity of the situation and presumably watched the game at home, ohne flag.

Pep Guardiola has signed a two-year contract extension with Manchester City, tying him down to the Etihad club until 2025.

The 51-year-old previously had eight months remaining on a deal set to expire at the end of the current season.

Guardiola has held talks with City executives in Abu Dhabi during the Premier League’s mid-season break for the World Cup.

The Premier League champions have taken the interruption to the regular schedule as an opportunity to secure Guardiola’s future.

Not a fixture for those fond of excitement and goalmouth incidents, but Croatia’s goalless draw with Morocco owed as much to those steady at centre-back as it did to a lack of incisive passing in the final third.

Front and center amongst them even ahead of kick-off was Josko Gvardiol; the youngest on show, which is always cause for extra attention, but also one of the players most-linked with a big money transfer.

Ahead of the World Cup It was Chelsea in particular he was said to be interesting, but Europe’s other top sides will all be keeping a close eye on the Leipzig defender’s availability. Against Morocco he showed why that is, although not exactly in the face of relentless pressure in his own defensive third.

On the other hand, that’s part of the attraction: the best teams dominate and need the back line to display concentration and reliability at the irregular moments they are called upon.

Eminently visible due to his beard-and-mask combo, Gvardiol’s defensive acumen was certainly visible at times, against both set-piece situations and Morocco’s counter-attacking threat.

Twice he made excellent covering runs behind his full-back on the left channel, showing both his buccaneering pace as well as the learned inclination he now has after serving at full-back himself with regularity.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has said he would wear the multi-coloured ‘OneLove’ armband at the soccer World Cup 2022 and see what happened, but he took care to add it was not for him to decide what national team captain Manuel Neuer does.

Habeck’s comments late on Tuesday came amid a row over the symbol in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

Asked by broadcaster ZDF whether players should wear the armband, Habeck replied: “I am not the media advisor of the DFB. [German football association]and I am not Manuel Neuer, but the opportunity is there.”

“I’m a politician trying to do my job properly, but what would happen if it happened now? I would like to know and I would take my chances,” he added.