Women's World Cup: Germany knocked out by Japan
- Published
German players were left in tears after their shock defeat
Hosts and defending champions Germany were knocked out of the Women's World Cup when they were beaten 1-0 by Japan after extra-time in the quarter-finals.
Substitute Karina Maruyama drilled the winner past Germany goalkeeper Nadine Angerer in the 108th minute.
It was Germany's first World Cup defeat since they were beaten 3-2 by hosts the USA in the 1999 quarter-finals.
Japan will now face either Australia or Sweden, who meet on Sunday, in the semi-final in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Germany put Japan under severe pressure in normal time, but in the second half of extra-time midfielder Homare Sawa picked out a deep run from Maruyama who slipped the ball under Angerer to silence a sell-out crowd of 26,067.
"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."
- Published1 July 2011