Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Rio de Janeiro: Mario Gotze's sublime extra-time strike was enough to see Germany crowned champions for a fourth time as the European sedge Argentina 1-0 at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Germany, appearing in a World Cup final for a record eighth time, where dealt on organisational blow before kick-off when Sami Khedira injured himself during the warm up and was replaced in the starting 11 by Christoph Kramer.Argentina shaded the opening exchanges of an evenly-fought first-half and were gifted a golden chance to break the deadlock in the 21st minute when Gonzalo Higuain, coming back from a previous attack, saw the ball returned in his direction by a poorly-judged back-header from Toni Kroos.
However Higuain, who flashed a fourth minute opportunity across the face of Manuel Neuer's goal, skewed his shot horribly wide with only the Bayern Munich keeper to beat.
Higuain did beat Neuer on the half-hour mark when the Napoli forward side-footed Ezequiel Lavezzi's curling cross into the back of the net only to see his effort correctly ruled out for offside.
Shortly after a dazed Kramer was helped from the pitch after it became clear that the Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder, making his World Cup debut, had never fully recovered from taking Ezequiel Garay's shoulder full in the face in an accidental 17th minute collision, and the 23-year-old's replacement Andre Schurrle drew a fine save from Sergio Romero seven minutes after entering the fray although the Chelsea attacker's effort wouldn't have counted anyway as Mesut Ozil was in an offside position.
Lionel Messi, whose nimble footwork created panic in the German defence four minutes from half-time, came within inches of giving Argentina the lead two minutes after the interval only to see his low shot roll just pass of Neuer's far post.
Neuer needed to be sharp in the 57th minute to punch the ball clear ahead of Higuain, who felt the full force of the 6 feet 4 inch keeper as his momentum saw him take out the Argentine attacker, in what was the only real time in the remainder of the half that either keeper was unduly concerned as the defences came out on top in an evenly-fought end to regulation time.
For the third World Cup final in succession the tournament decider went into extra time and it was the third successive match at Brazil 2014 for Argentina that went beyond the regulation 90, with the Albiceleste looking to preserve their proud record of having yet to concede in extra-time in the history of the tournament.
That statistic almost ended less than a minute into the first period but Romero was well-positioned to block Schurrle's instinctive snap shot before Argentina substitute Rodrigo Palacio, on in the 78th minute for Higuain, lifted the ball over Neuer but wide of the right hand post after receiving Marcos Rojo's superb diagonal pass seven minutes later.
The deadlock was finally broken after 112 minutes and it was goal worthy of settling any match when substitute Mario Gotze, who came on in the 88th minute to replace the World Cup record goal scorer Miroslav Klose, controlled Schurrle's cross superbly on his chest before knocking a volley past Romero from an acute angle.
There was late drama when Messi stepped up to take a free-kick right at the death but there was to be no repeat of the stoppage-time stunner he scored against Iran in the group stage as Germany became the first European side to win the World Cup on South American soil.
Photo: AFP