- Graham Russell
- Fri, Jun 30 2017
A Leon Gortzeka brace, a 58th minute Timo Werner goal and an injury-time Amin Younes strike sealed Germany passage to the Confederations Cup final with a 4-1 win over Mexico in Kazan on Thursday.
Germany will face Chile in the final on Sunday after the Copa America titleholders beat European champions Portugal on penalties on Wednesday evening.
The Europeans began in ruthless style. To be more specific, Leon Goretzka did. Slotting beyond Guillermo Ochoa twice inside eight minutes, the Schalke midfielder eclipsed Argentina legend Gabriel Batistuta's quickest-ever double at the tournament, scored 25 years ago.
Goretzka opened the scoring after six minutes when Benjamin Henrichs provided clever low centre for the midfielder, who arrived from the deep to finish for the first goal.
He added a second two minutes later as Werner played in a lovely ball for Goretzka to run onto and bury right-footed past Ochea.
Mexico had the majority of possession and seemed to be pressing high, which lead to Germany conceding possession cheaply.
In the 33rd minute, Hernandez played in Dos Santos who shot straight at Barcelona’s Ter Stegan.
Two minutes later, Dos Santos played in Javier Hernandez, who got one-on-one with the goalkeeper but skied it over the crossbar from four yards.
On 39 minutes, Herrera went close with a 25 yard free-kick which dipped to Ter Stegan's right, which he parried over for a corner.
Five minutes after the break, Mexico countered which resulted in Hernandez played it to Raul Jimenez, but he brought it onto his left peg and hit it straight at the goalkeeper.
Two minutes later a chance for the Germans, Werner got played in and ran towards Ochea but seemed to get pushed in the back mid-shot, so he dragged his shot across the Mexico box.
Germany went three up two minutes before the hour. Jonas Hector was played in by Juliam Draxler down the left , who squared it back across goal for Werner to tap in. Mexico protest for offside but he was onside.
Mexican goalscorer Marco Fabian came on for the ineffective Giovani Dos Santos on 62 minutes, and he mustered up a few chances after some nice intracict play by his side.
Jimenez powered a shot at Ter Stegan after nice Mexico build up play. Mexico still created opportunities when most teams heads would have gone down at that stage of the game and Jimenez header hit the top of the crossbar with Ter Stegan beaten.
A minute from the end, Marco Fabian blasted into the top right corner from 35 yards, leaving the goalkeeper with absolutely no chance. A brilliant solo goal and nothing short of what the Mexicans deserved.
A Counter attack by Germany resulted in Liverpool's Emre Can squaring it off to Younes in the 91st minute, who flat footed Ochea to divert it into the bottom right of corner.
Seconds after Mexico restarted the game, they nearly made it 4-2, with Hernandez going close and a bullet header from Marquez brought a decent save from Ter Stegan.
Mexico should not be too disheartened with the result though, they were very impressive with 57% possession, 23 attempts and 11 corners. That suggests that the scoreline flattered Germany a great deal.
It was only their second defeat in 26. They play Portugal on Sunday in the Third Place play-off.
Lineups-
Germany: Marc-Andre Ter Stegan; Joshua Kimmich, Anton Rüdiger, Matthias Ginter, Benjamin Henrichs; Leon Goretzka (Emre Can 65), Sebastien Rudy, Jonas Hector, Lars Stindl (Julian Brandt 77), Julian Draxler (Amin Younes 80); Timo Werner
Mexico: Guillermo Ochoa; Miguel Layún, Nestor Araujo, Hector Moreno, Oswaldo Alanis; Jonathan Dos Santos (Rafael Marquez 65), Hector Herrera, Raul Jimenèz; Giovani Dos Santos (Marco Fabian 62), Javier Aquino (Hirving Lozano 45), Javier Hernandez.
Referee: Nestor Pitana (Argentina).
Attendance: 37,923 (official).
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Julian Draxler (Germany).
