Chile face Portugal in semis after draw against Australia
GERMANY’S 3-1 WIN OVER CAMEROON OVERSHADOWED BY VAR DRAMA
hile set up a a Confederations Cup semi-final meeting with Portugal after a 1-1 draw against Australia yesterday while Germany booked a semi-final clash with Mexico after a 3-1 win over Cameroon marred by drama over the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
Australia muscled the South Americans out of their stride and took the lead with a James Troisi goal in the 42nd minute, but Chile capitalised on a defensive mistake to equalise through substitute Martin Rodriguez in the 67th minute of the Group B game.
Australia, needing a twogoal win to qualify, squandered an opportunity to go two ahead before halftime when Trent Sainsbury volleyed wildly over with the goal at his mercy.
The Australians, with forward Tim Cahill making his 100th appearance, missed further chances in the second half.
Chile, who face European champions Portugal in the last four on Wednesday in Kazan, came second in the group with five points, two behind Germany and three ahead of Australia in third. Chile began in their usual fast and furious style and Arturo Vidal forced an early save from Maty Ryan with a superb volley. Alexis Sanchez then managed to get clear but the ball was taken off his foot by Ryan Milligan’s last-ditch tackle. Sanchez went tumbling and Chile appealed for a penalty but the VAR ruled that it was a fair tackle.
After that Australia managed to outmuscle Chile, although they had four players booked before halftime and the 37-year-old Cahill was lucky not to be sent off for scything down Charles Aranguiz from Chile Germany 1 3
Two reviews
Australia Cameroon 1 1 behind. Troisi dinked the ball over goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to give Australia the lead after Chile lost possession in midfield.
Robbie Kruse had another chance after halftime when he got clear of his marker but failed to make contact with the ball.
Earlier, the VAR system was again thrust into the spotlight in the Germany-Cameroon clash when the on-field official needed two reviews of an incident to reach the right verdict.
Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan consulted the VAR after a reckless high challenge by Ernest Mabouka on Germany’s Emre Can saw Sebastien Siani wrongly receive a yellow card in a case of mistaken identity.
But even then Roldan did not come up with the right outcome as he simply switched the colour of midfielder Siani’s card from yellow to red.
It was only after Cameroon’s players insisted he review the incident again that he realised his error, rescinded Siani’s sending off and instead flashed the red card to Mabouka.
Germany deservedly topped Group B to set up a last four meeting with Mexico at the same venue on Thursday after the first international goals for Kerem Demirbay and Timo Werner, who got two.
Vincent Aboubakar scored Cameroon’s consolation.
The drama came on a landmark day for Joachim Loew, who was able to celebrate his 100th win as Germany’s head coach in his 150th game in charge.
After the lengthy stoppage involving the red card incident, Germany made their numerical advantage count almost immediately as Werner got his first national team goal.
Cameroon were gifted a way back when Aboubakar’s header burst through the German keeper’s gloves, but any thoughts of a comeback from the 10 men were quashed when Werner scored his second goal.