Feeling that their best players needed a rest and their fringe talent needed experience, Germany took a second unit to the Confederations Cup. They won the tournament anyway, with their youngsters barely outlasting Chile in a tough final that finished 1-0.
Germany vs. Chile: Final score 1-0, Die Mannschaft wins the Confederations Cup
Lars Stindl scored the final’s only goal to win Germany’s first ever Confederations Cup.
Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
Chile got off to a fantastic start, producing three big chances in the opening five minutes. The toughest save Marc-Andre ter Stegen had to make was on Arturo Vidal, on a powerful strike from the edge of the box.
Ter Stegen nearly gave away an opening goal when he gave up a big rebound off a shot by Charles Aranguiz. Alexis Sanchez pounced on it, but Antonio Rüdiger did enough to make his shot difficult. Less than a minute later, completely against the run of play, Germany scored.
The opening goal came off a terrible error by Marcelo Diaz. He got the ball caught under his feet in his own box and gave it away to Timo Werner, who squared to Lars Stindl to finish a tap-in from six yards.
Germany was much better after that, and only some good saves by Claudio Bravo kept Chile in the match. His best save came just before halftime, on Leon Goretzka.
Early in the second half, club teammates Joshua Kimmich and Arturo Vidal got into a scuffle, for which they were both shown yellow cards. That got everyone’s temper raging, and Gonzalo Jara delivered an elbow to the face of Werner shortly afterwards. Despite a long VAR review, Jara was only shown a yellow.
After starting the second half slow, Chile started to turn up the pressure in the final 20 minutes. Eduardo Vargas had a chance in the 74th minute off a gorgeous turn and shot from 12 yards, but ter Stegen was in position to make a save.
The closing minutes had plenty of action, but more in the way of fouls and fights than scoring chances. Germany’s defense played well down the stretch, withstanding Chile’s pressure and limiting shots. Sanchez had Chile’s last great chance, from a free kick in the 95th minute, but ter Stegen came up with an excellent save to seal the win.
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