By Tatenda Choto
It was a goals fiesta in the second Fifa Confederations Cup Group B match as defending World Champions Germany managed to sail through over AFC Asian Champions Australia 3-2 at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi yesterday evening.
The youthful Germany side drew first blood in the 5th minute through Julian Brandt who made a great run and made a cutback to set the oncoming Lars Stindl to open the score line. Tom Rogic levelled the matters with 3 minutes before half time when he blasted through Bernd Leno from the outside the box from his second bite of the cherry.
The Germanys extended the goal tally after Leon Goretzka was brought down by Massimo Luongo for a penalty which Captain Julian Draxler managed to simply convert for the second.
With only three minutes from the half Joshua Kimmich’s lovely through pass was marvellously converted by Goretzka who hammered the ball through for a third to further extend Germany the lead.
The on form Tom Rogic was later tripped at the age of the box by Goretzta for a free kick which was deflected along its way towards goal leading an erroneous catch by Leno on which Tomi Juric converted on a rebound under protest. Juric’s goal was later validated from the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for Australia’s second.
The match ended Germany 3 – Australia 2 with the Joachim Low’s youthful side dominating throughout the match enjoying a tremendous 59% ball possession.
German joins Chile at the top of the group with 3 points whilst Australia and Cameroon are at the bottom with no points.
Germany faces the powerful Chile whilst Cameroon plays Australia at Kazan Arena and Saint Petersburg Stadium respectively on Thursday.
