Germany rips Mexico to reach Cup final
SOCHI, RUSSI A • Leon Goretzka scored two quickfire early goals on Thursday as Germany beat Mexico 4-1 to reach the Confederations Cup final.
Exploiting Mexico’s defensive frailties, Joachim Loew’s inexperienced squad was 2- 0 up within 10 minutes.
Loew is using the squad to assess his pool of talent, and this one could end the tournament with more silverware for the world champions if it beats Chile on Sunday in St. Petersburg.
All three German scorers in the southern Russian resort of Sochi were players making their tournament debuts. After Goretzka netted in the 6th and 8th minutes, Timo Werner and Amin Younes scored in the second half.
Despite the convincing score line, Germany goalkeeper Marc- André Ter Stegen was kept busy. There were 25 shots on goal but he only conceded in the 89th minute when he was beaten by Marco Fabian’s long-range swerving shot.
Mexico will now head to Moscow to play Portugal in the third- place match on Sunday after paying the price for affording Germany too much space to cut through its ragged defence.
It was a misplaced header by captain Hector Moreno that freed Goretzka to launch the attack that he completed to put Germany in front. Goretzka seized possession around the halfway line, passed to Benjamin Henrichs on the right flank and accelerated to receive the ball back and sweep in a low shot from 20 yards (meters).
Mexico was jolted and had not regrouped when its defence was shredded again inside two minutes. Werner threaded the ball through for Goretzka to slot under the legs of goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa at the near post.
Germany looked set for its first clean sheet of the tournament until a quickly-taken free kick left the defence unprepared to close down Fabian. But Germany still had the final say, with Younes released by Emre Can and striking across the face of goal into the net.