Germany wins first-ever Confederations Cup
Germany has won the Confederations Cup for the first time courtesy of a 1-0 victory over Chile at the Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg on Sunday.
Lars Stindl was gifted the only goal of the game after 20 minutes as Germany held out against the Copa America champions to add the Confederations Cup title to their roll of honours.
Chile continued to prevent Germany from getting into any sort of rhythm while creating chances of their own, and Mauricio Isla squandered a clear opening after 19 minutes when the ball broke to him inside the area.
Juan Antonio Pizzi’s side should have made their dominance pay when Ter Stegen spilt Vidal’s effort at the feet of Sanchez, but the Arsenal man couldn’t turn the rebound home from close range and the miss was punished when Germany took the lead against the run of play just seconds later.
It was a mistake which gifted Germany the opening goal as Timo Werner caught Marcelo Diaz in possession on the edge of the penalty area before unselfishly squaring the ball for Stindl to roll a simple tap-in into the empty net.
Chile quickly regained control of the game, though, and Charles Aranguiz had the chance to respond quickly but couldn’t connect properly with a cross into the area.
Vidal then fired another long-range effort over the crossbar before Germany began to get more joy going forward in the final 10 minutes of the half, with Goretzka flashing one low strike narrowly wide of the far post having been picked out by Sebastian Rudy.
Chile again started the second half brightly, but the first chance fell to Germany when Jara threw himself in the way of Draxler’s effort to divert it wide.
