Germany vs Japan - 2022 World Cup Betting Guide

Germany Team Info – A Reinvigorated Squad

Germany became World Cup title winners for a fourth time in 2014. Securing a famous win over Lionel Messi's Argentina in the final, the team went to number 1 in the world rankings. The team then went on to reach the semi-finals of the 2016 European Championships but was knocked out by France in the semi-finals. After this, Germany went into a rapid decline. In the 2018 World Cup, Germany came last in their group, and in the 2020 European Championship, they were knocked out in the round of 16. Many German players were ageing or had already retired. Germany sacked their longtime manager, Joachim Low, in favour of Hansi Flick. Flick coached Bayern Munich and was an assistant coach for Germany up until their 2014 World Cup win.

Manuel Neuer is still the German first choice keeper, but there are also other options in Bernd Leno or Marc-Andre ter Stegen. In defence, they can use Antonio Rudiger, Niklas Sule, Benjamin Hendrichs, Matthias Ginter, and Thilo Kehrer, to mention a few. In midfield, they have Joshua Kimmich, Ilkay Gundogan, Leon Goretzka, Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz, and Marco Reus, amongst the many options. Thomas Muller will feature in attack, and he can try to improve his tally of 8 World Cup goals. They also have younger striking options in Timo Werner, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala.

Japan Team Info – A Determined Team

Since first qualifying for the World Cup in 1998, Japan have successfully qualified for every single competition up until now. The Japanese team has always either crashed out in the group stage, or the round of 16. In 1998, 2006, and 2014, they were eliminated in the group stage. In 2002, 2010, and 2018, they crashed out in the round of 16. Japan's most recent long run in an international competition came in 2019, when they made it all the way to the final of the AFC Asian Cup. There, they faced Qatar, who beat Japan 3-1, putting them in second place. Their qualification route to the World Cup was smooth, as they won 7 out of their 10 games, and finished second to Saudi Arabia by a single point.

Eiji Kawashima is Japan's goalkeeper, and plays in the French Ligue 1. In defence, they have Yuto Nagatomo, and Maya Yoshida, who are 36 and 34 years old, having 136 and 119 caps. The team has also used Hiroki Sakai, Miki Yamane, and Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu. Their midfield has players such as Takumi Minamino, Wataru Endo, Ritsu Doan, and Gaku Shibasaki, who play in the German Bundesliga and La Liga. Since the retirement of Shinji Okazaki, Japan have not yet found a youthful replacement, but Yuya Osako has stepped up to the mark and provided Japan with 25 goals from his 57 appearances.

Germany vs Japan Head-to-head

Germany has only played 2 professional games against Japan. They did play 2 amateur games as well, but those were in the 60s. In 2004 Germany beat Japan in an international friendly, and in 2006 the two teams drew in another friendly.

Germany vs Japan Betting Preview

If you want to bet on Germany or Japan in this match, you will find no shortage of options. You can bet on all sorts of aspects of the game, from how many goals will be scored, right up to correct score and sequence of the goals, with all the bets you can imagine in between.

Asian Handicaps

Handicaps are bets on a team to win by a selected margin or more. The negative number is subtracted from the score of your chosen team and they will have to still win the match. Alternatively, there are positive handicaps where the number is added to your chosen team’s score which will make it safer to bet on that team.

If you bet on Germany with a handicap of -2.5 then you will need them to finish the match 3 goals clear of Japan. If you bet on Germany with a handicap of -2 then you will also need them to finish the match 3 goals ahead of Japan, but if they only finish 2 goals in front then the score will be tied and you will receive your stake back.

You can also find a handicap of -2.25 which will require Germany to win the game by 3 goals or more, but if they only win by 2 then you will receive your money back. This is because your stake will be split in two, with half the money going on a handicap of -2.5 and the other half on a handicap of -2.

Over/Under Total Goals

Whether you think the group match between Germany and Japan will be a high scoring affair or whether the two teams will struggle to score in the match, you can make your bet on how many goals will be scored in the game with total goals. There are betting lines, from which you will have to select one and then bet on whether the game will end with over or under the number of goals defined by the line. For example, you may think that Germany and Japan will score many goals, in which case you can bet for the match to end with over 4.5 goals. Alternatively, you can bet on the match to finish with under 1.5 goals if you think Germany and Japan will only score 1 or no goals between them.

X Goal Sequence

This is one of the most difficult bets as you will have to predict how many goals will be scored, what the score will be at the end of the match, and what order the goals will be scored in. There are two, three, four and five goal sequence bets. In an example, you may bet on a four goal sequence, in which you think that Germany will score 3 and Japan 1, and the order of the goals will be Germany/Japan/Germany/Germany. When placing the bet, Germany and Japan will be labelled H and A, meaning “home” and “away”. The example above will look like H/A/H/H.

And Loads More

Your betting options do not stop there, as we have bets on virtually every aspect of the match between Germany and Japan. Both teams to score, Germany to lead after 30 minutes, either team to score in the first 5 minutes, Japan to score over 1.5 goals, Germany to win by a margin of 2, Germany to reverse the result, are just some examples of bets you can place.

It is also worth checking out our match combos, where you can find two or more single bets fused into one. These will include the bets listed here, fused with matchbets, double chance, total goals, and more.

When betting on matches in the World Cup, we urge you to remember to gamble responsibly. You should never spend more than you can afford to lose, and if you need more help on how you can avoid overspending, then you can turn to organisations such as gambleaware.co.uk