TWO TOP EUROPEAN sides of recent years collide, as Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal meet many people’s favourites for the tournament Germany.
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Germany 4-0 Portugal
Hello, and welcome to our liveblog of Germany versus Portugal.
We’ll have the team news for you momentarily.
Here are the two teams’ starting line-ups…
GERMANY: Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, Mertesacker, Howedes, Lahm (c), Khedira, Ozil, Muller, Kroos, Gotze.
PORTUGAL: Patricio, Alves, Pepe, Veloso, Coentrao, Ronaldo (c), Moutinho, Almeida, Meireles, Nani, Pereira.
The last time Germany and Portugal met at the World Cup was in 2006 in the third-place play-off.
Here’s what happened…
Didi and Dunph are on today’s panel.
The former Liverpool player has taken the unprecedented step of writing off the Germans.
So who do you see winning this game?
Poll Results:
Worrying scenes earlier, as Didi Hamann almost misses his flight to Ireland.
Ronaldo is ready to go…
Some impressive facial hair in the Portuguese team today…
We’re underway…
3mins: Gotze tries to head the ball across goal but it’s easily cleared. Shortly thereafter, the Bayern Munich man concedes possession the Portuguese box following a promising move.
Portugal then break with Ronaldo, who plays it Almeida, yet Germany defend well and avert the danger.
Good, attacking start to this game.
7 mins: Lahm concedes possession in the final third and Ronaldo breaks through on goal, but his shot is straight at the goalkeeper.
Seconds later, Patricio’s clearance goes straight to Khedira, whose subsequent shot goes narrowly wide.
PENALTY FOR GERMANY!
GOAL! Germany 1 Portugal 0 Muller, 11.
Muller consummately converts a penalty, after Gotze is pulled down by Pereira in the box.
Here’s the vine…
Pereira is lucky to be still on the field, as he denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity, yet only received a yellow as a result.
22 mins: Boateng barges Ronaldo to the ground, yet the referee neglects to award a free.
The Real Madrid superstar has had a relatively quiet game so far.
24 mins: Pereira has shot just over for Portugal, who have come more into this game in recent minutes.
Meanwhile, Almeida has picked up an injury and has been replaced by Eder.
GOAL! Germany 2 Portugal 0 Hummels, 32.
The defender leaps above his marker and heads a corner powerfully home to double Germany’s advantage.
34 mins: Nani breaks but his poor cross fails to find Ronaldo.
Portugal have been very disappointing so far.
Here’s a look at the second goal.
RED CARD FOR PORTUGAL!
37 mins: Pepe gets annoyed with Muller’s over-reaction after brushing him off, and then inexplicably head-butts (or at least put his head firmly against) the German star.
He is promptly dismissed as a result for this act of sheer stupidity.
Here’s a look at Pepe’s moment of madness.
GOAL! Germany 3 Portugal 0 Muller, 45.
Pereira fails to clear Kroos’ ball in, and the German striker pounces, slamming it home, with Patricio only able to help the ball into the net.
HALF-TIME: GERMANY 3-0 PORTUGAL
Here’s the game’s third goal — the keeper surely could have been done better.
So Germany are leading Portugal 3-0 at half-time, and deservedly so.
Without having to excel, the Germans have been ruthless in exposing their opponents’ inadequacies at the back, with Muller in particular shining.
Portugal, meanwhile, have been very disappointing, rarely troubling Germany at the back and continually looking vulnerable in defence.
The star man, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been scarcely noticeable, however in his defence, the service to him has been practically non-existent.
Several reporters on Twitter are suggesting Ronaldo swapped shirts with Sami Khedira in the tunnel.
Somewhere Roy Keane is not smiling…
The second half has begun…
Wow!
49 mins: It’s been a fairly slow start to the second half.
This may not be the most exciting 45 minutes you’ll ever see.
50 mins: Ozil is played through on goal, but his shot is well saved.
The rebound falls to Muller, who heads just over, missing the opportunity to score a hat-trick in the process.
54 mins: Portugal are having trouble getting the ball off Germany right now.
Clive Tyldesley compares the game to a training session, and he’s not wrong.
Some fairly famous faces, Angela Merkel and Sepp Blatter, watch on.
59 mins: Ronaldo earns a free-kick in a promising position, but slams the subsequent effort straight into the wall.
It hasn’t been his or Portugal’s day.
Meanwhile, for Germany, Ozil is replaced by Andre Schurrle.
Coentrao has gone down clutching his hamstring, after over-stretching for the ball.
This game is getting more disastrous by the minute as far as Portugal are concerned.
He is consequently replaced by Andre Almeida.
67 mins: Germany break and Schurrle plays through Gotze, whose shot is deflected just over.
With both 10 and 11 men, Portugal have struggled to cope with Germany’s classy, inventive attackers.
72 mins: Hummels is now down for Germany after landing awkwardly on his knee — that looks like it could be serious.
Unsurprisingly, he hobbles off to be replaced by Shkodran Mustafi.
Eder goes down in the box after collecting a rebounded Nani effort.
Cristiano Ronaldo is absolutely livid as play is waved on, protesting vocally to the referee.
GOAL! Germany 4 Portugal 0 Muller, 77.
Schurrle’s cross is only parried into the path of Muller, who makes no mistake to secure the hat-trick.
Here’s a look at that penalty claim, as well as Muller’s third goal.
84 mins: Another Ronaldo free-kick, and again, he hits it into a German player.
His underwhelming World Cup record looks set to continue.
(Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo stands on the sidelines looking dejected.)
Finally Ronaldo finds the target with a free kick, and Neuer has to parry it away strongly.
To be fair to the Real Madrid man, he’s kept trying till the bitter end, even if it’s by no means been his best performance.
FULL-TIME: GERMANY 4-0 PORTUGAL
So it’s all over, and Germany have ultimately won this game easily.
Portugal were the creators of their own downfall, defending poorly and showing ill discipline in the form of Pepe’s sending off.
Germany were constantly clever and creative in attack, however surely stiffer tests await them.
Right, that’s all from me.
Thanks for reading and commenting, and we’ll have more World Cup reaction throughout the day, so stay tuned.
