Germany didn’t have better chances than China in their World Cup opener on Saturday, and they looked a bit intimidated by the physical Chinese defense at times. The Germans won 1-0 anyway on the strength of their superior technical players and an absolute banger by 19-year-old Giulia Gwinn.
China really should have beaten Germany ughhhhhhhh
Yep, that was a classic gut punch of a failed upset bid.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
But the game could have gone so much differently.
China may have had better chances, but they didn’t have the better finishing. Li Ying is China’s best goal-scorer, but couldn’t finish off an amazing opportunity in the 15th minute.
And China had an even better opportunity to score before halftime. Several in a matter of a few seconds, actually. But this was the agonizing result.
“China will end up regretting those missed chances,” commentators around the world said in a hundred different languages. It’s a cliche, but probably not an overused one, because it’s true so often. China was always going to have a small number of good chances to score against a more talented and experienced opponent. The first miss elicited a hearty “NOOOOOO” from neutrals, while the second landed a very stiff gut punch.
That was the moment, and they blew it.
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