Nightmare Again! Germany 1-4 Japan: Flick's side are thrashed as Ito & Asano net

Euro 2024 hosts Germany slumped to a shock 4-1 home loss to Japan in their international friendly on Saturday.

Match Report

Junya Ito opened the scoring for Japan after 11 minutes, but Bayern Munich forward Leroy Sane struck back for the hosts.

Ayase Ueda tucked in from close range to restore Japan's advantage midway through the first half at Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg.

Takuma Asano and Ao Tanaka then put the game to bed in the closing moments.

Germany's fourth defeat in their last five outings was also their heaviest setback since a 6-0 loss in the Nations League against Spain in 2020.

Former Bayern Munich boss Flick has won just 12 of his 25 games in charge since replacing Joachim Low in August 2021.

Germany also lost 2-1 against Japan at the 2022 World Cup as they failed to get out of their group and have recorded just three wins from their last 12 fixtures - beating Oman, Costa Rica and Peru.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

11' GOAL! Germany 0-1 Japan (Junya Ito)

19' GOAL! Germany 1-1 Japan (Sane)

22' GOAL! Germany 1-2 Japan (Ayase Ueda)

45' What a save from Ter Stegen!

88' SAVE! Fine stop from world-classTer Stegen

90' GOAL! Germany 1-3 Japan (Asano)

92' GOAL! Germany 1-4 Japan (Ao Tanaka)

Line-ups

Germany XI: Gundogan, Ter Stegen, Emre Can, Rudiger, Sule, Gnabry, Kimmich, Sane, Havertz, Nico Schlotterbeck, Florian Wirtz

Subs: Muller, Oliver Baumann, Trapp, Gross, Hofmann, Brandt, Tah, Henrichs, Gosens, Malick Thiaw, Felix Nmecha, Kevin Schade

Japan XI: W. Endo, Junya Ito, Ko Itakura, Kamada, Tomiyasu, Keisuke Osako, Hiroki Ito, Yukinari Sugawara, Kaoru Mitoma, Hidemasa Morita, Ayase Ueda

Subs: Daniel Schmidt, K. Nakamura, Asano, Shogo Taniguchi, Ritsu Doan, Koki Machida, Daizen Maeda, Ao Tanaka, Takefusa Kubo, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daiki Hashioka, Keito Nakamura, Ryoya Morishita, Seiya Maikuma, Atsuki Ito