- Gareth O'Reilly
- Sat, Jun 21 2014
A cracking Group G game took place on Saturday night between Germany and Ghana as the two sides played out a 2-2 draw. Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan almost allowed Ghana to cause an enormous upset although substitute Miroslav Klosewas sprung from the bench to ensure a share of the spoils for the Germans.
The opening shot of the game came from Ghana inside ten minutes after Mertisaker was caught napping by Gyan, the striker got in front of the German defender but could only fire wide from eight yards out.
Despite dominating possession in the opening half hour the Germans failed to create many clear cut chances. The much fancied European side were instead forced to make do with a number of long range efforts, none of which found the target.
After the half hour mark Neuer was called into action to deny Sulley Muntari's fast paced shot from the edge of the area that stung the hands of the Bayern Munich keeper.
As the game continued towards half time the Germans looked to pick up the pace with lots of quick one and two touch football. One of these moves eventually lead to Gotze smashing a half volley into the waiting arms of Fatau Dauda.
Six minutes into the second half Germany took the lead. A fantastic ball crossed in from the right wing by Thomas Muller was bundled over the line by Mario Gotze who finally succeeded in breaking the Ghanaian resistance.
It was a lead that only lasted a matter of minutes as Andre Ayew rose highest to head home an equaliser as Germany conceded their first goal of this World Cup Finals.
What happened less than ten minutes later caught everyone off guard. Lahm gave the ball away at the back allowing Asamoah Gyan to run through and slot past the on rushing Manuel Neuer.
The goals were now beginning to flow in and the next one went to Miroslav Klose. The striker was only on the pitch a minute when he got on the end of a flick on from a corner kick to poke home from 3 yards out and get Germany right back in the game.
Germany then went in search of a winner with Thomas Muller racing clear just minutes later only for Kwadwo Asamoah to recover and put in a goal saving challenge.
Klose was given a fantastic opportunity to become the World Cup's leading goal scorer when he picked the ball up in the box only to fire wide when he really should have hit the target.
Germany: Manuel Neuer, Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm, Mats Hummels, Bennedikt Howedes; Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos, Sami Khedira (Bastian Schweinsteiger 69), Mario Gotze (Miroslav Klose 69), Jerome Boateng (Shkodran Mustafi 46); Thomas Muller
Subs Not Used: Ron-Robert Zieler, Roman Weidenfelle, Andre Schurrle, Lukas Podolski, Christoph Kramer, Kevin Grosskreutz, Matthias Ginter, Erik Durm, Julian Draxler.
Bookings: None
Ghana: Fatau Dauda, Jonathan Mensah, John Boye, Kevin-Prince Boateng (Jordan Ayew 53), Harrison Afful; Mohammed Rabiu (Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu 78), Sulley Muntari, Andre Ayew, Christian Atsu (Wakaso Mubarak 72), Kwadwo Asamoah; Asamoah Gyan
Subs Not Used: Abdul Majeed Waris, Rashid Sumaila, Daniel Opare, Adam Kwarasey, Samuel Inkoom, Michael Essien, Albert Adomah, Stephen Adams, Afriyie Acquah.
Bookings: Sulley Muntari (90+3)
Referee: Sandro Ricci (Brazil)
Attendance: 59,621
Extratime.com Man Of The Match: Toni Kroos (Germany)
