Australia 2-3 Germany
Germany stormed to victory against Australia in a three-goal thriller to get off the mark in Group B. But the un-fancied Aussies made them work for it!
With many senior men rested, this tournament is a chance for fringe and young players to impress, and the depth of Joachim Low’s squad is such that it still arrived in home turf of 2018 World Cup hosts, Russia, as favourites on many betting websites. And it seemed the safest football prediction of all that the Germans would dominate this game, and the first half was as one-sided as you could imagine.
It took only five minutes for Germany to get in front when Lars Stindl fired home and from then on, it was one-way traffic. Leon Goretzka was in fabulous form, with much of Germany’s attacking play going through him, it seemed amazing that the favorites would go in at half time just a goal up. Aussie keeper Matt Ryan was continually left exposed by his defence and Sandro Wagner missed twice when he should have scored, first sending a free header inches wide of Ryan’s right post and then dragging a shot just past his left.
His wastefulness was punished (albeit briefly) when Tommy Rogic burst through to smash the most unlikely of equalisers on 41 minutes. However, the Aussies delight lasted just three minutes before Massimo Luongo got his legs in a tangle and dropped the impressive Goretzka in the box. Julian Draxler calmly converted the penalty to make it 2-1 at the break.
Goretzka made it three early in the second half but then sloppy defending allowed Tomi Juric to stab home and make it 3-2. That seemed to breathe confidence into Australia as they played with a more ambition and they pushed hard for an equaliser but in the end, Germany came closest to adding to the score, Timo Werner denied by the post on 75.
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