Young Germany delights Loew
SOCHI: A youthful Germany side weathered a second-half fightback by Australia to open their Confederations Cup campaign with a 3-2 win over the Socceroos on Monday.
Goals by Lars Stindl and Leon Goretzka, either side of a penalty by Julian Draxler, saw Germany home to leave them second in Group B behind Chile, who they face in Kazan tomorrow.
Celtic midfielder Tommy Rogic had made it 1-1 in the first half and Tomi Juric added Australia’s second after the break from a goal that was allowed to stand despite a suggestion of handball leading to a review from the video assistant referee.
The Socceroos then had a string of late chances to equalise, but Germany held out.
“First and foremost, I am happy we picked up the three points,” beamed Germany coach Joachim Loew, who punched the air at the final whistle.
“We played well in the first half — the only bad thing was that we were only 2-1 up at the break.
“We lost our way after 60 minutes and need to work on retaining our stability, but a lot of things worked well.”
Australia next face Cameroon, who lost 2-0 to Chile in their opening game, in Saint Petersburg on Thursday with both teams needing a win in their bid to reach the semi-finals.
“It’s disappointing, we were barely clinging on in the first half,” admitted Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou.
“The second half was better, we composed ourselves and got back into things.
“It’s a loss and the loss falls on me, it’s my responsibility.”
Much had been made before kick-off of Germany bringing a young squad and their starting line-up had just 138 international appearances between them.
The arrival of the world champions in Sochi failed to excite local fans and only handball, the decision to give the goal was referred to the video assistant referee.
Replays showed the ball striking Juric’s arm before Leno saved, but the goal was allowed to stand.