Germany 4-0 Argentina
Wow! They're not fancied this German team, at least not by the so called smart money. Well it had better sit up and take notice, and so too should probably semi-final opponents Spain, because for my money, this German team is developing some sort of momentum here. England too can take heart, that Argentina, a much much better team than them also had four goals stuck past them. Or maybe not.
Scoring after just 3 minutes can be either a curse or a blessing for a team. Fortunately for Germany, they took the lead with Thomas Muller's header from Schweinsteiger's free kick and didn't ever look back. Klose should have put them two up after about 25 minutes but he could only blaze wastefully over Romero's cross bar. For the rest of the half it's like a pair of prizefighters standing toe to toe with each other. But Germany looked the stronger. On 37 minutes Argentina did manage to breach the German defence, but four of them, count them, four of them were in offside positions before the ball crosses the line, so no goal.
Moving into the second half, Argentina had chances but couldn't take them and on 67 minutes Klose made them pay. Great play from Germany freed Podolski down the left before squaring for Klose to score the easiest goal he's ever likely to. Things were getting desperate now for Argentina, and it took just 7 more minutes for the third goal to come along, this time Schweinsteiger waltzed through the penalty area before feeding Freidrich to make it 3. The icing on the cake, or the crowning turd in the water pipe, depending upon your point of view was Klose's 2nd and the Germans' fourth. It was the best goal of the four, as Podolski broke to feed Ozil who crossed for Klose to close the game out. In truth it had been over since the second goal, but what a stunning performance from Germany. Argentina didn't really play that badly, but they got the same treatment as England who at least managed to score against the Germans. Roll on Wednesday night for what will be an amazing game of football...
