Germany will set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with either Italy or Spain after comfortably beating Slovakia 3-0 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
The Germans were expected to dominate the game and they did just that with Mesut Ozil and Toni Kroos dictating play from the middle of the park. They got an early breakthrough when Jerome Boateng’s first-time volley got a slight deflection before ended up at the back of the net. Ozil could have doubled their lead in the 12th minute after the referee awarded them a penalty from a Martin Skrtel foul, but he was denied by Matus Kozacik. Germany extended their lead 3 minutes from the interval, courtesy of Mario Gomez after a good wing play from Julian Draxler.
Slovakia’s misery was further compounded in the 2nd half when Mats Hummels’ header found an unmarked Draxler in the box, and the left-winger took his time to make sure his volley is on target. It was game, set and match by then as Joachim Low’s side controlled the remainder of the game to cap off a comprehensive victory.
Here are the 3 most impressive players of the night:
Julian Draxler
The Wolfsburg player was touted as one of the hottest young talent in football, and he effectively raised his market value in a game where he dominated the left wing with ease. It only took him a simple ball roll to fool Kucka in the build-up to the second goal, and he was further rewarded with the top performance by scoring his first competitive goal for Die Mannschaft.
Toni Kroos
It was another routine showing from the midfield powerhouse as he dictated the tempo of the game with ease. Kroos was involved in most of the Germans’ attacks and they benefited from his vision to find the right player at the right time. He clearly deserved a goal for his efforts but his attempt was well saved by Kozacik.
Mats Hummels
Bayern Munich’s new summer signing had a fairly comfortable game in the backline of a solid and mostly unchallenged German defence. He made his presence known whenever the Slovakians had a rare sniff at goal, but he also managed to help his team offensively with his accurate passes from the back.
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