Germany survived a whirlwind
assault by Chile and capitalized on an awful mistake by the South Americans to
claim 1-0 victory in a pulsating, bad tempered Confederations Cup Final. Germany
won the title for the first time after Lars Stindl scored the only goal in the
20th minute when Chile midfielder Marcelo Diaz gave the ball away on the edge
of his own area.
Chile, playing with their trademark
high octane style and driven forward by another relentless display by Arturo
Vidal, dominated the match but were let down by poor finishing. A dramatic game
featured missed chances, defensive howlers, scuffles and two video reviews, one
producing a highly controversial outcome in the second half. Chile defender
Gonzalo Jara elbowed Timo Werner by the touchline and Serbian referee Milorad
Mazic, alerted by the video assistants, let him off with a yellow card instead
of a red.
Shortly afterwards, Mazic turned
down Chilean appeals for a penalty, stood by his original decision after
another review incident and booked Eduardo Vargas for drawing an imaginary
television screen. It was a remarkable achievement for Germany to lift the
trophy with a young, experimental squad, although it could also be a bad omen
as no team has ever won the World Cup after winning the Confederations Cup the
year before.
On the other hand, Award list is
also dominated by Germans. Julian Draxler won the Golden Ball Award, Claudio Bravo
from Chile won the Golden Glove award and Timo Werner won the Golden Boot
award. The young Germany team also won the FIFA Fair Play Award. On the other
end, Germany beat Spain 1-0 to win the European under-21 championship.
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