Porterville Recorder

Mexico beats defending champion

- By JAMES ELLINGWORT­H

MOSCOW — Defending World Cup champions have been finding it hard to get out of the group stage lately, and Germany is proving no exception.

The 2014 champions, ranked No. 1 in the world, were exposed defensivel­y and surprising­ly beaten by Mexico 1-0 on Sunday, putting its hopes of advancemen­t in doubt.

Well, not everyone is in doubt.

“We will make it,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “There’s no reason to fall apart because you lose one game.”

Hirving Lozano scored the lone goal in the 35th minute, picking up Javier Hernandez’s pass inside the penalty area and beating Mesut Ozil before shooting past Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from 10 yards.

The goal decided the match — a match Germany didn’t expect to lose.

“I don’t know if it’s the biggest victory in (Mexico’s) history, but one of the biggest for sure,” Lozano said. “My teammates and I did some great work. We all ran our hearts out. This is the result of all that hard work.”

Three of the previous four defending World Cup champions failed to reach the knockout stages, France, Italy and Spain. Two of them lost their opening matches while the Italians had to settle for a draw.

The Germans are bidding to become the first team to retain the World Cup title since Brazil in 1962, but have now won only one of their last seven games in all competitio­ns. They hadn’t lost an

Page 2B

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States