Argentina 0 Germany 4

Green Point Stadium, Cape Town Saturday July 3, 16.00 SA Time – Argentina 0 Germany 4 (Muller, 3’, Klose, 68’, 89’, Friedrich, 74’)

Muller, 3’. 1-0 for Germany. Otamendi committed a foul, Schweinsteiger took the kick, the ball fell to Muller. End-to-end football from two great teams.

35’ Di Maria forced Neuer into making a great save; 35’ it was Higuain. Germany started well, Argentina grew.

The second half promised. Argentina would have massacred anyone else today; instead, Diego Maradona’s team came up against Joachim Loew’s super-organized Germany, with Bastain Schweinsteiger in great form.

68’, Klose, 2-0, pass from Podolski; 74’ Friedrich 3-0, great play from Schweinsteiger; in the final minute, Podolski-Ozil-Klose, 4-0.

Argentina attacked, had 20 shots on goal, and 54% of possession. It was fire against ice this afternoon, and the ice-cool German counter-attack put out the fire. Diego Maradona did not deserve this, for he put the fire back into Argentina for the first time in two decades.

Argentina: Romero, Demichelis, Burdisso, Heinze, Di Maria (Kun Aguero), Higuain, Messi, Tevez, Mascherano, Otamendi (Pastore), M. Rodriguez

Germany: Neuer, Friedrich, Khedira (Kroos), Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Podolski, Klose, Muller (Trochowski), Lahm, Mertesacker, Boateng (Jansen)