Wealth of riches but champions Germany stay wary of Mexico
Venue:
Mexico (4-1-4-1): Ochoa; Salcedo, Ayala, Moreno, Gallardo; Herrera; Vela, Guardado, Santos, Lozano; Jimenez. remain one of the strongest teams in the competition. Youngsters like Timo Werner, Julian Brandt, Leon Goretzka, Joshua Kimmich and Niklas Sule have been valuable additions to a team loaded with experience.
While Loew didn’t reveal much about his line-up for Sunday, Werner is expected to lead the attack. Oezil, Thomas Mueller and Marco Reus will be expected to feature in front of the midfield duo of Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira.
Kimmich, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng and Jonas Hector are tipped to be Loew’s back-four with Manuel Neuer in goal.
For Mexico, the target in this World Cup will be to go beyond the round of 16 after bowing out at that stage on the last six occasions. Juan Carlos Osorio’s side has prepared rigorously for this tournament, playing 68 games since January 2015, the highest by any of the 32 teams in Russia.
They also topped the CONCACAF qualification round even though the competition saw most teams under-performing.
Osorio has a few famous names at his disposal in the form of Carlos Vela, Javier Hernandez, the 39-year-old Rafael Marquez, who his playing in his fifth World Cup. But it is PSV Eindhoven’s highly-rated Hirving Lozano on whom Mexican hopes will rest against a strong German side.
Lozano’s threat was highlighted by Loew on Saturday.
“I hope he (Lozano) cannot contribute much tomorrow but I know how good he, and the Mexican attack, is. I hope we can control them well,” Loew said.
Hector Moreno and Carlos Salcedo, Mexico’s expected centreback pairing, will have their hands full against the defending champions. Vamos família! (Come on, family!)
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England striker Portugal In good Brilliant effort by the @Socceroos against one of the best teams in the world!!! @FIFAWorldcup
actor Australian