World Cup 2010 - Glorious Germany crush Argentina

Sat, 03 Jul 17:11:00 2010

Germany stormed into the World Cup semi-finals as they swept aside Argentina 4-0 at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town.

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Germany made a lightning start as Thomas Mueller headed home a Bastian Schweinsteiger free-kick inside three minutes and Miroslav Klose added a second-half brace either side of Arne Friedrich's first international goal.

Joachim Loew's side will now be clear favourites for a fourth World Cup title after following up their 4-1 demolition of England with an even more impressive performance against Diego Maradona's outclassed side.

Mueller scored the quickest goal of the World Cup so far after two minutes and 40 seconds to give Germany a dream start.

The Bayern Munich forward, 20, got ahead of Nicolas Otamendi to score his fourth goal of the tournament with a hopelessly static Argentina keeper Sergio Romero only able to get a palm on the ball.

Germany were in complete control in the opening quarter and should have gone two up when Mueller burst into the penalty area and squared to Klose who lofted over the bar from eight yards.

Gradually Argentina did get a foothold in the game and Manuel Neuer was called into a save at his near post to deny Gonzalo Higuain who then had an effort chalked off for offside.

But Germany were always a danger with their breaks at pace and a Lukas Podolski drive just swerved past the far post before Philipp Lahm and Mueller combined to set up Mesut Ozil but he blasted over the crossbar from 20 yards.

Mueller saw a goalbound poke deflected off Nicolas Burdisso on the stroke of half-time but Argentina had their best spell of the match after the interval.

Angel Di Maria's 20-yard effort just faded past the post, a Carlos Tevez volley smacked into the face of Per Mertesacker while Neuer got lucky when a Higuain pull back bounced off his body but only into the path of Sami Khedira.

Neuer also fumbled Higuain's close-range effort but got everything behind shots from Tevez and Di Maria before Germany ensured a trip to Durban for Wednesday's second semi-final in the space of seven second-half minutes.

Klose doubled Germany's advantage after 67 minutes as Mueller hooked the ball through to Podolski whilst on the floor and he squared to the veteran hitman who tapped home from close range with the Argentine defence wide open after Otamendi lunged in.

The third came after a sensational run from the outstanding Schweinsteiger who waltzed past two players from a short corner and pulled back to centre-half Friedrich who smuggled home from close range.

And a fourth goal a minute from time put the icing on Germany's 10th World Cup quarter-final victory in 13 attempts as a lightning break culminated in Ozil crossing to Klose who volleyed home with superb composure.

Klose was earning his 100th cap and with his double moved into joint second-place with Gerd Mueller on the all-time World Cup top scorers list.

He will get a chance to improve on his 14-goal tally in midweek although he will not be joined by Mueller whose suspension for a second yellow card in the tournament was the only sour note for the vibrant Germans.

Match Facts

Argentina v Germany

Goals 0-4

1st Half Goals 0-1

Shots on Target 7-6

Shots off Target 7-6

Blocked Shots 6-6

Corners 5-4

Fouls 20-14

Offsides 5-0

Yellow Cards 2-1

Red Cards 0-0

Passing Success 85.8%-79.6%

Tackles 16-33

Tackles Success 62.5%-75.8%

Possession 54.3%-45.7%

Territorial Advantage 47.2%-52.8%

Lee Walker / Eurosport

Comment 277 - 296 of 296

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  1. To all those professional Germany haters, I have bad­ news for you :
    Germany has consistent high marks every­ four years, this year they win the Cup.
    Spain played­ poorly against Paraguay who had fair chances indeed. 1­ : 0 ? Poor victory
    Holland each time is overrated and­ will loose against Germany soon.
    Uruguay got lucky­ (Ghana !) and will be sent home by Holland.
    Germany :­ 12 x in the final, 3 x champion, countless times in the­ semifinals.
    Never a worse result than the 1/4 Finals !!­ (1998, 1994, 1962)
    Just acknowledge it : Germany and­ Brazil are the cream in Football. Period.

    From Rolf, on Tue 6 Jul 6:13

  2. Maradona gets his words shoved back up his back side­ where they came from South America the best­ footballing nations Spain, Holland and Germany would­ argue that point.

    From Tim B, on Tue 6 Jul 0:25

  3. I can't say that I am a fan of either the Dutch or­ German national teams, however as a EUROPEAN I am @#$%­ glad that the south americans of Brazil and Argentina­ who kept bragging that Euro football is dead (although­ 90% of their real talent is formed in European clubs)­ were knocked out by 2 european sides. Well done­ Netherlands for snatching that victory in front of­ Brazil and well done Germany for rolling the Panzers on­ top of an over-rated Argentinian side. For the time,­ being it is pretty clear that south american football­ is still second. With Spain, Germany and Netherlands in­ the final 4 it has become pretty clear that the trophy­ will be brought back to the Old World this year.

    From Claudiu U, on Tue 6 Jul 0:10

  4. Is Germany destined to fail against Spain once again as­ they did in Euro 2008 ? signs say so. would be a sad­ ending for Germany though and they will eventually­ stand in third place having defeated Uruguay in next­ round.
    Final would be so exiting instead that will be­ taking place in between Holland and Spain which will­ come to end with Holland as Winner and Spain as­ runner-up.

    From said, on Mon 5 Jul 9:22

  5. Performance of the tournament so far. Very nice to­ watch. And this coming from an England fan. On current­ form, Spain should be very worried indeed.

    From LG, on Mon 5 Jul 8:20

  6. Why is it that when a certain team played extremely­ well, some people will come up with negative comments­ like drug enhancement and match fixing? Can't you­ people/ losers just accept the fact that Germany played­ excellent football yesterday and won fair and square.

    From cynthia_molitor, on Mon 5 Jul 4:56

  7. it clearly showed that there' s a difference ­ between coaching and playing the game as maradona the­ player was ways ahead of the maradona the coach!­ obviously, they need to get someone who's can­ actually bring the best out of the players!

    From paulm, on Mon 5 Jul 3:56

  8. Honduras to win the world cup.

    From bruce, on Mon 5 Jul 3:36

  9. i like the way Germiny played without fight or rough on­ any body,just easy goals,mostly i love PODOLSKI and­ schweinsteiger,More codohs to u all

    From Theophilus, on Mon 5 Jul 3:12

  10. oh my god.... i felt very upset coz argetina can't­ did the best...anyway i hope in the next world cup wil­ give the luck to my legend team... tatz sure......

    From Tilageswaran, on Mon 5 Jul 2:31

  11. david (if you have not lifted a stone to discover him­ before) is typical type of boorish and intellectually­ limited insect,that is incapable of rational thought or­ logical process,a prime example of the worst aspects of­ english football supporter.

    From kenny f, on Mon 5 Jul 1:34

  12. it is the Germans who bribed the World, and yes it was­ also balls fault, but i believe it was the cat....no it­ wasnt about skills, ability, modesty, fair play,­ etc...ohh yeah it was the cat...

    From james d., on Mon 5 Jul 1:32

  13. saf

    From james d., on Mon 5 Jul 1:29
  14. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Germany have nver played beautiful football, They have­ always played functional, organised football that is­ designed to win.
    The teams of the future are definately­ from Africa but by then FIFA will be so full of crooks­ that everyone will be going for long walks instead of­ watching football which will be as boring as this World­ Cup.

    From NicolaWHL, on Mon 5 Jul 0:59

  15. Winning the world cup is basically for those that play­ as a team. Even if there are world stars in a group and­ there is no understanding, they will still flop, I­ guess that was the case of France. As for the 3 lions,­ they were a victim of one of those football­ controversies which FIFA can correct if they so desire.­ Ghana had all it took to go all the way, but I guess­ they will live to fight another day. I forsee an­ all-dutch final in this competition.

    From charles, on Mon 5 Jul 0:46

  16. 4th star for thy Germantz?because they deserve it?,i­ think the dutch deserve their first a lot more,for­ almost 40 years of beautiful football.Yeah maradona has­ done drugs in the past,but Low or wahtever is name is­ eats its own booger,there has to be a fifa rule on­ that, kids are watching!

    From the wizard of oz, on Mon 5 Jul 0:41
  17. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Does somebody think of match-fixing? I'm not an­ expert in football but the way Argentina played, the­ way Messi played (the expressions on his face till the­ last moment, as if he was hiding sth), the way Maradona­ was on the sidelines, everything made me feel that the­ match was already fixed. It was all an eyewash. Who­ made how much money out of it? It must be much more­ than they would have earned by winning the­ match...otherwise the Argentines would have played­ differently.

    From Satyan, on Mon 5 Jul 0:09

  18. yeah it was the ball :) but this what about the facts­ Germans was won this 3 times, and were in the semis 11­ times etc...yeahh it was the ball...you shouldnt keep­ open your eyes only whether you are in London or some­ mountains believing you are the only 7 people living in­ the world, you should also keep your mind open­ believing humans are the only intelligents beings in­ the Universe...and then may be we can win the world­ cup..

    From james d., on Mon 5 Jul 0:09

  19. I love you, Scweiniii

    From Danzie, on Sun 4 Jul 23:35

  20. Well done Germany, you wiped the superior smile from­ Maradon's face, which was very gratifying! Germany­ played very well, as a TEAM, a concept England­ can't seem to grasp! Although England were­ terrible, I suppose we were better than Argentina in a­ way, we scored 2 goals against the Germans, but a­ reporter remarked about England something along the­ lines of; "They have high expectations, followed­ by realisation, bitter recriminations, then they­ forget, and do it all again 2 years later" How­ true! We won the World Cup in 66, (I was 13 then, it­ was quite a day), but I would bet I'm unlikely to­ experience that feeling again in my lifetime, which is­ a sad thought! Come on England, get rid of the old­ players we trot out every international match, we need­ new blood, what have we got to lose?!

    From Helen, on Sun 4 Jul 23:29
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