World Cup news and highlights

With the World Cup now underway in Qatar, many are wondering how this moment arrived – that a tiny Gulf nation with little footballing history ended up hosting the biggest event the sport has to offer.

Qatar had never previously appeared at a World Cup tournament – let alone staged one – and became the first host nation to lose the opening game of the tournament with a 2-0 defeat against Ecuador on Sunday.

The country’s World Cup debut was 12 years in the making, a period in which Qatar’s host status has stirred controversy within the footballing community and beyond.

To read more, click below.

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İlkay Gündoğan's penalty is the difference between the sides at the interval.

Japan looked lively in the opening stages and had the ball in the back of the net, but Daizen Maeda's effort was ruled out for offside.

It was a clumsy foul from Japan goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda to concede the penalty after Japan had done well to keep Germany at bay for more than half an hour.

Kai Havertz then looked to have given Germany a 2-0 lead right on half time, but it was eventually ruled out by VAR for offside.

This game is far from over, with Japan still looking dangerous when going forward.

Germany's players placed their hands over their mouths in a pre-game team photo in an act of protest.

Players for the German national team covered their mouths in a team photo taken shortly before their World Cup opening match against Japan in Qatar on Wednesday. The action comes in protest over FIFA's decision to sanction players wearing "OneLove" armbands, meant to promote diversity and inclusion at the World Cup.

Captains from England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had planned to wear OneLove armbands at the Qatar World Cup, before FIFA made it clear on Monday players would be yellow carded.

The German national team's official Twitter account later released a statement, indicating that they had been prevented from using their voices to promote human rights at the World Cup.

"We wanted to use our captain’s armband to take a stand for values that we hold in the Germany national team: diversity and mutual respect," the team's official account tweeted shortly after the game began. "Together with other nations, we wanted our voice to be heard.

"It wasn’t about making a political statement – human rights are non-negotiable. That should be taken for granted, but it still isn’t the case. That’s why this message is so important to us.

"Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice. We stand by our position," it added in a threaded tweet.

İlkay Gündoğan gives Germany a lead in the 33rd minute after Japan's goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda conceded a penalty. The midfielder steps up and makes no mistake converting it.

We are underway at the Khalifa International Stadium! Can the opening match of Group E break the streak of goalless draws at this year’s World Cup? 

After another 0-0, this time between Morocco and Croatia, goalless draws are (unfortunately) becoming a bit of a feature of this World Cup.

We're only on Day Four of Qatar 2022, but the tournament has already recorded three 0-0s.

For comparison, Russia 2018 had just one goalless draw in the entire competition.

Is this a sign of misfiring forwards or defensive dominance?

Germany is playing in its first World Cup match since its shock exit in the group stages in 2018 when it was the defending champion.

Japan did reach the knockout stages at the last edition of the World Cup, but was defeated in heartbreaking fashion by Belgium after going two goals up.

This time, both are in one of the most difficult groups, alongside Spain and Costa Rica.

All eyes will be on the ‘Japanese Lionel Messi,’ as 21-year-old Takefusa Kubo has been dubbed back home, while Germany will be hoping that stalwart Thomas Müller is firing on all cylinders

Nobody playing in this tournament has scored more World Cup goals than Thomas Müller.

He’ll be leading the line against Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium today, hoping to add to his tally of 10.

Argentina’s game against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday was supposed to serve as the perfect springboard for Lionel Messi’s last dance at the World Cup.

But the Argentine captain was overshadowed by arguably the biggest upset in World Cup history and, as Saudi Arabia celebrated its win, Messi trudged down the tunnel with a face of thunder.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or, who has yet to lift the World Cup trophy, didn’t hide from the embarrassment though.

As many of his teammates stormed past reporters on the way to the team bus, Messi was one of two players to speak to the media – the other being goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.

Words such as “nightmare” and “inexplicable” were used by Argentine media reacting to the shock result which leaves its side with no margin for error.

“The truth? Dead,” Messi said when asked about the team’s morale.

To read more of Messi's reaction to the defeat, click below.

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Japan

Manager: Hajime Moriyasu

Goalkeepers: Eiji Kawashima, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt

Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Maya Yoshida, Hiroki Sakai, Shogo Taniguchi, Ko Itakura, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Hiroki Ito, Miki Yamane

Midfielders: Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Daichi Kamada, Yuki Soma, Kaoru Mitoma, Ao Tanaka, Takefusa Kubo

Forwards: Takuma Asano, Shuto Machino, Daizen Maeda, Ritsu Doan, Ayase Ueda

Starting XI: Gonda, Itakura, Nagatomo, Sakai, Yoshida, Endo, Kubo, Ito, Kamada, Tanaka, Maeda

Germany

Manager: Hansi Flick

Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp

Defenders: Matthias Ginter, Antonio Rüdiger, Niklas Süle, Nico Schlotterbeck, Thilo Kehrer, David Raum, Lukas Klostermann, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Christian Günter

Midfielders: İlkay Gündoğan, Jonas Hofmann, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller, Julian Brandt, Mario Götze

Strikers: Kai Havertz, Youssoufa Moukoko, Niclas Füllkrug, Karim Adeyemi

Starting XI: Neuer, Ruediger, Raum, Suele, Schlotterbeck, Kimmich, Gnabry, Mueller, Musiala, Guendogan, Havertz