Poland shocks Germany 2-0

 Poland make history with Germany win

Poland defeated Germany for the first time in their 19 meetings to steal a march in UEFA EURO 2016 Group D and stun the world champions.

Germany had won 12 and drawn six of the previous fixtures between these two but almost all of a sell-out 56,934 crowd in Warsaw were willing that to change. Bundesliga-based Robert Lewandowski could have moved level with Zbigniew Boniek on 24 international goals had he scored, but in the end he did not need to beat club-mate Manuel Neuer.

It was tight early on, until Germany started to dominate possession and on 31 minutes a Jérôme Boateng long-range effort was deflected away. Thomas Müller was unable to beat Wojciech Szczęsny and was then thwarted by Kamil Glik when seemingly in the clear. Müller also headed over a 42nd-minute André Schürrle cross, before things turned after the break.

The home team began to produce quick counterattacks and from one they took a 51st-minute lead. Borussia Dortmund defender Łukasz Piszczek sent a great pass into the box which Arkadiusz Milik, himself on loan to AFC Ajax from Bayer 04 Leverkusen, rose high to nod in.

Germany looked to respond but Szczęsny and the Polish defence held firm while Karim Bellarabi shot over. Then, as time ran out, Lewandowski broke into the area and cut back for substitute Sebastian Mila to seal a famous victory.

Mats Hummels heads home as Germany eliminates France

Mats Hummels (L) of Germany celebates scoring his team's first goal with his teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Quarter Final match between France and Germany at Maracana on July 4, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Shaun Botterill - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

NY Daily News

The weather was hot, the performance dreary, and the result inevitable. In a match that stuck stubbornly close to a predictable script, Germany ousted France, 1-0, Friday for a quarterfinal victory in sticky Rio de Janeiro.

The lone goal came early, which only made this game between former World Cup champions seem to drag on longer. On a set piece from the left side in the 13th minute, Toni Kroos looped a dangerous cross into the box, where Mats Hummels outleaped France defender Raphael Varane and flicked the ball past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

“This is the next dream to become reality here in Brazil and I hope it’s not the last, either,” Hummels told ARD television in Germany.

Germany became the first team in the history of the World Cup to qualify for four successive semifinals — a remarkable show of reliability over a 12-year span. Hummels, meanwhile was the first defender to score two goals at this tournament.

Kroos, a midfielder, is known so widely for his accurate service that he is nicknamed “Garcon,” the French word for waiter.

“If you’re talking about the term ‘Garcon’ in the sense of setting up my teammates with good passes, that’s all right,” Kroos had said earlier in the tournament. “But when we’re sitting around together in the evening, I’m not the waiter. I prefer to be served myself then.”

The Germans were heavily criticized at home after their difficult win over Algeria in the Round of 16, and may face more complaints after this rather dull match. “We’re in the semifinals, so who cares about anything else,” defensive defender Philipp Lahm told reporters.

Once Hummels scored, Germany sat back and took the air out of the ball. The French only mustered two legitimate chances, including one in the fourth and final minute of added time, when Karim Benzema stormed in from the left and launched a rocket that was deflected out by Minuel Neuer’s right hand.

For the French, at least, this was a more dignified exit than the disaster of 2010, when much of the veteran team — including Thierry Henry — mutinied against coach Raymond Domenech and refused at one point to disembark from the team bus. After that disaster, Domenech wrote in his diary, “I’m out of here. I couldn’t give a damn about this bunch of imbeciles.”

The French then rebuilt the national team around coach Didier Deschamps, who has a much younger side that played adventurously early in this tournament and with exceptional attacking ability — until it met solid, staid Germany.

France will host the European Championships in 2016 and the hope is that this side will mature in time to compete for the title.

At hot, humid Estadio Maracana before 75,000 fans, however, the French became just another stalk of grain for the German threshing machine. 

Germany survives Algeria 2-1 in extra time

Yahoo Sports

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) -- When it comes to the knockout stages of the World Cup, wins are worth more than style.

 

That was on full display Monday when Germany labored to a 2-1 extra-time win over an aggressive Algeria side to reach the tournament's quarterfinals for the ninth consecutive time.

 ''You don't have to play fantastic every match,'' Germany coach Joachim Loew said. ''You have to win.''

All three goals came in extra time after Algeria dominated for long stretches during the opening 90 minutes. Germany substitute Andre Schuerrle scored in the 92nd minute and Mesut Ozil made it 2-0 in the 120th before substitute Abdelmoumene Djabou pulled one back in injury time for Algeria.

Three-time champion Germany will next face 1998 winner France on Friday at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

''It was a victory of will power,'' Loew said. ''We had major problems in the first half to organize the way we played. We made simple mistakes, which invited the opponents to start counterattacks.''

Germany finally took the lead when Thomas Mueller provided a cross from the left flank that was slightly behind Schuerrle. The Germany forward dragged his left leg and backheeled the ball into the far corner, leaving goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi with no chance.

With the temperature a chilly 14 degrees Celsius (57 degrees Fahrenheit) and a light rain falling at times, the pace was high at the Estadio Beira-Rio but the goals didn't come until the end.

''Yes, we had our problems but at the end we were better and had a lot of chances,'' Loew said. ''The important thing is to advance. ... Past champions also did not play well every match. You cannot play fantastic every match of the tournament.''

Ozil thought he had put the result out of reach when he pounded in a rebound after a shot from Schuerrle was cleared off the line by defender Esseid Belkalem, but Djabou volleyed in a minute later to make the last seconds count.

Perhaps inspired by the ''Disgrace of Gijon'' at the 1982 World Cup, when Germany and Austria supposedly conspired to oust Algeria in the group stage, the northern African nation outmatched Germany's intensity for long stretches in an entertaining match.

Algeria was playing in the second round of the World Cup for the first time and thought it had taken the lead before a goal from Islam Slimani was waved off for offside in the 17th, one of many opportunities for the Algeria striker.

''We fell just short,'' said Rais, who was voted man of the match. ''That's why we're disappointed, because we think more was possible tonight.''

At the start of the second half, Germany put Schuerrle on for Mario Goetze in an attacking midfield and came out better organized.

In the 55th, Germany captain Philipp Lahm unleashed a hard shot that an outstretched Rais did well to push wide with his fingertips.

Still, Algeria continued to produce dangerous counterattacks. In the 72nd, Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer had to come out of his area to head away the danger with Slimani chasing.

 In the 88th, Germany's inability to find the target turned theatrical for a moment when Mueller appeared to fall during a free kick.

Then the goals came, the rain intensified, and Germany took control.

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Germany: Manuel Neuer; Shkodran Mustafi (Sami Khedira, 70), Per Mertesacker, Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Hoewedes; Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Christoph Kramer, 109), Mesut Ozil, Toni Kroos, Mario Goetze (Andre Schuerrle, 46); Thomas Mueller.

Algeria: Rais M'Bolhi; Faouzi Ghoulam, Essaid Belkalem, Rafik Halliche (Madjid Bougherra, 97), Mehdi Mostefa, Aissa Mandi; Medhi Lacen; Islam Slimani, Sofiane Feghouli, Saphir Taider (Yacine Brahimi, 78); El Arabi Hilal Soudani (Abdelmoumene Djabou, 100).

Germany salvage a draw with Ghana

Germany's Mesut Ozil flanked by Ghanaian defenders

New York Times

By DUNCAN IRVING

 

Germany and Ghana traded blows in a pulsating 2-2 tie in Fortaleza on Saturday. The result leaves Germany at the top of Group G with four points from two games; a win for the United States against Portugal in Manaus tomorrow would give the Americans sole possession of top spot.

After a torpid first half of patient German possession and quick Ghanaian counterattacks, the game sprang to life in the 51st minute, when Mario Gotze capped a long run to head home Thomas Muller’s fine cross. The Germans had barely finished celebrating when Ghana pulled level; Andre Ayew rose above a static German defense to head past Manuel Neuer in the 54th minute.

The Black Stars took a shock lead in the 63rd minute, after Sulley Muntari broke up some sloppy German play in their own midfield to send a pass to Asamoah Gyan. The striker raced in on goal, took one touch to control the ball and another to fire it past the outstretched fingertips of Manuel Neuer.

But Germany Coach Joachim Low had an ace up his sleeve: the veteran striker Miroslav Klose. Germany won a corner, and Klose’s first action was to pop up at the far post to poke home a loose ball that flashed across the goalmouth. The goal was Klose’s 15th in World Cup finals play, tying him with Brazil’s Ronaldo as the all-time leading scorer. He also became the third player to score in four tournaments alongside Pele and Germany’s Uwe Seeler.

Both teams had chances in a frenetic finale, but neither could provide a winner. The result left Germany with four points and Ghana still alive in Group G.

Germany now faces the United States in Recife on June 26. Ghana will travel to Brasilia to play Portugal.

Muller scores a hat trick as Germany thumps Portugal 4-0

German players huddle after scoring their opening goal

The Telegraph 

By Mark Ogden, Salvador

There are no ear-rings, bling or designer hair styles with Thomas Müller, but in a beauty contest against Cristiano Ronaldo in Salvador, the German delivered emphatic proof that substance beats style every time when you score a hat-trick.

Müller, the winner of the Golden Boot at South Africa 2010, put the current holder of the Ballon d’Or firmly in his place by leading Germany to victory against Portugalwith the first hat-trick of this World Cup.

How Ronaldo must wish he could play in white at the World Cup, just as he does for Real Madrid in La Liga. Then again, Germany are one of the few teams that can probably succeed well enough without him.

But in front of the watching German chancellor Angela Merkel, Joachim Low’s team showed they are determined to lead Europe’s challenge in Brazil.

Despite having won just three of their seventeen previous encounters with the Germans, Portugal went into this Group G fixture sensing the opportunity to improve their miserable record against the three-time world champions.

They had a fit-again Ronaldo in the starting line-up and the searing heat in Salvador, in excess of thirty degrees at kick-off time, would appear to favour a group of players accustomed to a Mediterranean climate over those from northern Europe.

Yet the only team affected by the broiling temperature was the Portuguese judging by their first-half capitulation.

As for Pepe, Portugal’s liability of a centre-half, it seemed as though he was suffering from some kind of sunstroke when he earned himself a red card, and almost certainly a suspension that will rule him out of the remainder of the group stage, for head-butting Müller on 38 minutes.

As one of world football’s most notorious hatchet men, Pepe will find sympathy in short supply following his moment of madness.

Perhaps the Real Madrid defender had realised at that point, however, that the game had already been lost and Müller was merely the victim of frustration boiling over.

Although Hugo Almeida and Ronaldo forced saves from Manuel Neuer inside the opening seven minutes, the early stages were dominated by Germany and Sami Khedira gave Portugal a warning of what was to come in the eighth minute when he shot wide of an empty net from twenty yards following a scuffed clearance by goalkeeper Rui Patricio.

Germany’s opening goal three minutes later was another example of questionable refereeing at this World Cup, with Serbian official Milorad Mazic awarding a penalty after Mario Götze went to ground under a challenge by Joao Pereira.

Puyol goal gave Spain a historic win

Spain's redemption came from the man least expected to do it. Defender Carles Puyol scored a header in the 74th minute. off a Xavi Alonso corner that the German goalkeeper failed to stop.

Before the Puyol goal, the game looks to end in a penalty shootout as both teams never gave each other opportunities to score. It was a tight game but it was evident that Spain took the initiative as it repeatedly pounded the German defense with its relentless attack.

Spain had two other opportunities to score. There was Iniesta's feed to David Villa which the latter failed to finish. Then, Spain could have sealed the win, when Pedro went all the way instead of passing it to a waiting Fernando Torres.



In the German side, Kross almost equalize the game in the dying minutes but that was all Germany could muster after 90 minutes savage action.

Spain will now face Netherlands in the finals on July 11 with Germany squaring off with Uruguay for third place on July 10.