germany 0-1 japan (aet) maruyama winner sends germany reeling
japan shocked germany in wolfsburg as karina maruyama scored in extra time to knock the hosts out at the quarter-final stage.
there will be no third consecutive fifa women's world cup success for germany after the hosts suffered a surprise extra-time defeat at the hands of japan in wolfsburg.
despite creating numerous goalscoring opportunities throughout this engaging last-eight encounter germany were unable to find the cutting edge and were punished for their profligacy when karina maruyama scored the only goal of the match in the 108th minute.
the hosts' first opportunity to score came with the match just four minutes' old when kim kulig sent a header wide, injuring herself in the process and having to limp off. whether the injury had a bearing on germany's performance is unclear but japan certainly enjoyed much of the possession before the break, passing the ball around neatly and carving out a chance for yuki nagasato on the half-hour, which the forward dragged wide.
despite a stuttering first-half display, silvia neid's side should have been ahead by the break, kerstin garefrekes failing to dispatch melanie behringer's free-kick from three metres out and miscontrolling the ball when clean through on goal. either side of half-time inka grings blazed over from 20 metres and then headed a garefrekes cross over.
germany piled on the pressure in the second half, behringer wreaking havoc in the japanese rearguard with her set-pieces, one of which almost provided a goal for simone laudehr, whose header was cleared off the line by yukari kinga, while garefrekes also missed an aerial opportunity.
japan had been on the back foot for most of the match, enjoying only temporary respite when aya miyama fired over on 64 minutes, although the same player came close again eight minutes from time before unleashing a cross-shot which ando just failed to convert. at the other end the hosts could have won it two minutes from time, when babett peter nodded célia okoyino da mbabi's centre wide, while garefrekes again shot wide in added time.
extra time continued in a similar vain, okoyino da mbabi and grings failing to find the target before maruyama struck, latching on to homare sawa's pass to silence the home crowd and set up a semi-final meeting with sweden or australia who meet on sunday.
