Germany beats Mexico 4-1 to reach final

SOCHI, Russia — Just how much Leon Goretzka wanted to seize his opportunity in an experimental Germany squad became clear after only eight minutes against Mexico.

With two goals in the space of 109 seconds on Thursday, Goretzka put the defensively-ragged Mexicans on the back foot and set Germany on its way to the Confederations Cup final with a clinical 4-1 victory.

Germany coach Joachim Loew is using the World Cup warm-up tournament to assess his pool of talent, resting all but three of his world champions from 2014. Silverware was never the priority. But the World Cup will have another trophy for company if Loew’s fledglings can beat Chile on Sunday in St. Petersburg.

Germany drew 1-1 with the South American champions in the group stage, recovering after conceding in the sixth minute - and learning from the lax start.

“Against Chile in particular we were caught off guard; we’d discussed that beforehand and implemented it well today,” the 22-yearold Goretzka said. “After getting through the group stage, our objective was to reach the final. We’ve done that convincingly. Now we want to win the title and reward ourselves for our performances so far.”

All three German scorers in the southern Russian resort of Sochi were players making their tournament debuts.