- Gareth O'Reilly
- Tue, Jul 01 2014
Germany squeezed by a resilient Algeria team that kept fans on the edge of their seats for the entire 120 minutes with a late late Mesut Ozil goal securing a quarter-final berth with France for his German team.
The game started in entertaining fashion with Bastian Schweinsteiger attempting his luck from all of 30 yards out, the Algerian keeper managing to deal with the effort through the use of his strong palms.
It was however Nigeria that looked the more likely to score in the opening exchanges as Ghoulem had a fantastic chance to put his side in front. Ghoulem received the ball in the box but from an acute angle failed to hit the target as his effort skimmed wide of the outside post.
Despite the African nation having the better of the chances in the first 35 minutes it was the Germans that continued to dominate the possession statistics with a whopping 65% of the ball.
The Germans had their best chance to open the scoring on the 40th minute when first a long range shot from Toni Kroos resulted in a fine save, Gotze was first to the rebound but once again Mboulhi was there to prevent Algeria going behind.
Not long after that chance Kroos had another long ranged dipping effort that flew over the Algerian cross bar as the Germans closed in on their opening goal.
Bastian Schweinsteiger got the second half off to an almost perfect start for the Europeans as he blasted a powerful shot towards the top corner of the Algerian goal, only for Mbolhi to once again tip the ball over the bar.
With the game heading into it's final fifteen minutes the confidence by the Algerians that they could cause an upset began to grow with first Feghouli and then Ghoulam having snap shots at Manuel Neuer's goal.
The Germans were now in all out attack mode as Muller broke down the right wing before pulling the ball back for Schweinsteiger to head inches wide of the Algerian post.
A goal appeared to certainly be coming, first Muller headed the ball straight at the keeper, next Schurrle followed up with a well timed effort from the rebound that he saw cleared off the line much to the frustration of Joachim Lowe.
Just moments later Muller ran through on goal but after taking a touch the striker somehow manager to steer his shot just wide of the goal.
Then with just one minute to go in normal time, Lahm crossed the ball into the box that saw Schweinsteiger get his head to, but the effort was tame and easily held by the goalkeeper.
We were just two minutes into extra time when Thomas Muller broke down the left side of the field before sliding the ball across the six yard box to allow the oncoming Schurrle to score with ease.
Then in the final minute of the additional period the Germans finally wrapped it up and booked their place into the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Schurrle and Ozil caused Mbolhi to leave his line before the latter was able to blast home past two defenders on the line.
But that was not where the action ended as in the first of the two minutes of injury time Djabou volleyed home to convert a goal that was no more than the African nation deserved.
Germany: Manuel Neuer, Shkodran Mustafi (Sami Khedira 70), Per Mertesacker, Jerome Boateng, Benidikt Howedes; Phillip Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Christoph Kramer 109), Toni Kroos; Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Mario Gotze (Andre Schurrle 46)
Subs Not Used: Roman Weidenfeller (GK), Ron-Robert Zieler (GK), Erik Drum, Matthias Ginter, Kevin Grosskreutz, Julian Draxler, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose
Yellow Cards: Phillip Lahm (107)
Algeria: Rais Mbolhi; Aissa Mandi, Essaid Belkalem, Rafik Halliche (Madjid Bougherra 97), Faouzi Ghoulam; Saphir Taider (Yacine Brahimi 78), Mehdi Mostefa, Medhi Lacen; Sofiane Feghouli, Islam Slimani, El Arbi Hillel Soudani (Abdelmoumene Djabou 101)
Subs Not Used: Mohamed Zemmamouche, Cédric Si Mohamed, Hassan Yebda, Djamel Mesbah, Liassine Cadamuro, Nabil Ghilas, Nabil Bentaleb, Riyad Mahrez, Carl Medjani
Yellow Cards: Rafik Halliche (42)
Referee: Sandro Ricci (Brazil)
Attendance: 43,063
Extratime.com Man Of The Match: Thomas Muller (Germany)
