Germany Eliminates Below-Par France

Mats Hummels’ early header was sufficient to see Germany past France on Friday.

Coach Joachim Low’s side, who are now in their tenth World Cup semi-final in 13 tournaments since 1966, became the first nation to reach four consecutive World Cup semi-finals after the victory at the magnificent Maracana.

The three-time champions were comfortable winners over a disappointing France in Rio de Janeiro.

Germany Players Celebrates Fifa World Cup Quarter-Final Win Over France. Image: Fifa via Getty Image.
Germany Players Celebrates Fifa World Cup Quarter-Final Win Over France. Image: Fifa via Getty Image.

German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer put up an impressive performance in the quarter-final clash, denying Raphael Varane’s header and Blaise Matuidi strike when his side started opening spaces behind.

Hummels got the better of Varane to score what proved to be the winning goal and Germany can now prepare for a meeting with Brazil or Colombia in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday.

France coach Didier Deschamps:

“Although our adventure in Brazil ends here and we’re sad, disappointed and frustrated, we’ll move on.

“I hope this group of players can play together for a long time. I have a lot of work to do with them, but things are definitely promising.

“Today, there wasn’t much between the two sides. I thought we were a little bit timid at first and they scored early. After that, we showed promise. We created chances and could have been more clinical, but Manuel Neuer had a good game.”

Germany coach Joachim Low:

“We played well, we played with a compact defence. They had some long balls against us but we did a classy job taking care of those.

“Our midfield did a very good job disrupting their attack. We didn’t have any organisation problems.

“It was an incredibly exciting match but you can’t expect anything else at the World Cup. Both teams were equals. Our team had fought hard to the end.”