Belgium And Germany Are Out Of The World Cup After Both Of Their Groups Had Insane Final Days

Two of the best teams in the sport will watch the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup from home. Belgium, which entered the tournament ranked as the second-best team in the world by FIFA, and Germany, the 2014 World Cup winners and FIFA’s 11th-best squad, were both eliminated on the final day of their respective group stages on Thursday.

Belgium was the first European power to see its World Cup come to an end on Thursday. Their mission was simple: They needed to pick up a win over Croatia, the reigning runners-up at the tournament, in order to move on out of Group F. The story of their game was the play of the team’s standout striker, Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, who has struggled with injuries this year and did not play in the team’s first two games at the tournament.

Lukaku couldn’t start against Croatia, but he did come in at the half and had a number of chances that he’d normally bury. Instead, Lukaku missed chance after chance, while no one else on Belgium’s team was able to put themselves into a position to score a goal.

Because of this, Belgium left the tournament before the knockout stage, with Morocco and Croatia moving on in Group F.

Several hours later, things got crazier. All four teams in Group E — Spain, Japan, Costa Rica, and Germany — had the opportunity to get out of the group. Spain entered the day on four points and had to play Japan, which was on three. Costa Rica entered with an upper hand on the Germans, as they had three points to Die Mannschaft’s one.

Things looked like they were heading in the direction of the two European giants going into the half. Germany’s Serge Gnabry put one past indomitable Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the 10th minute, while Spain’s Álvaro Morata found the back of the net in the 11th. This meant that Spain was slated to win the group with seven points, while Germany was in line to finish in second with four.

And then, pandemonium. Japan’s Ritsu Doan and Ao Tanaka both scored within six minutes of the start of the second half, which put Japan on top of the group and Spain in second.

The other game was just as insane. Costa Rica’s Yeltsin Tejeda scored in the 58th minute. Twelve minutes later, Juan Pablo Vargas scored for the Ticos. This meant that Spain was slated to join Germany on an early vacation.

A substitute gave Germany new life, though, as Kai Havertz beat Navas twice to put the Germans ahead on the scoreboard … but not in the table, where they were considerably behind Spain on goal differential.

Germany got a fourth goal by way of Niclas Füllkrug, which opened the door for them to move on via goal differential over Japan if Spain was able to draw level. But it was all for naught, as Japan held on and prevented Spain for getting an equalizer. The loss means that the Germans crash out of the group stage for the second World Cup in a row, while Japan won the group and Spain earned the distinction of being runners-up.

Both of these groups had an impact on one another, as the two are matched up in the first round of the knockouts. As a result, Japan will play Croatia on Monday at 10 a.m., while Morocco will play Spain 24 hours later. Both games will air on Fox.