Saturday 20 / April / 2024
St Petersburg: Germany survived a whirlwind assault by Chile and capitalised on an awful mistake by the South Americans to claim a 1-0 win in a pulsating, bad-tempered Confederations Cup final on Sunday.
Lars Stindl scored the only goal into an empty net in the 20th minute after Chile midfielder Marcelo Diaz gave the ball away on the edge of his own penalty 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.
There was a controversial incident involving video technology in the second half when Chile defender Gonzalo Jara elbowed Timo Werner by the touchline.
Serbian referee Milorad Mazic initially missed the incident, was alerted to it by the video assistants and then let Jara off with a yellow card instead of showing a red.
There was late drama deep in stoppage time when Germany goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen dived to push away an Alexis Sanchez free-kick.
The win could be a bad omen for Germany, however, as no team has ever won the World Cup after lifting the Confederations Cup the year before.
