Germany are the 2017 Confederations Cup champions, after a tight and tense 1-0 victory over Chile in St. Petersburg.
Chile started superbly, creating a number of chances, with Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez heavily involved.
However, against the run of play, the Germans opened the scoring on 20 minutes, albeit after a horrendous mistake from Marcelo Diaz.
The last man in the Chilean backline, a dozy Diaz gifted the ball to Timo Werner, who knocked it past Claudio Bravo, leaving Borussia Mönchengladbach forward Lars Stindl to slot the ball into the empty net.
Chile continued to threaten the German goal. However, Jogi Loew’s side continued to threaten on the break, with Werner failing to make the most of a great chance.
After the break, tempers started to fray, with Bayern Munich team-mates Arturo Vidal and Joshua Kimmich booked for an altercation by the Chile goal.
The growing bad feeling between two sides would eventually see Gonzalo Jara elbow Timo Werner in the face. However, even after VAR help, Jara would receive only a yellow card for the incident.
Vidal had a great chance to level the scores, only to blast over when he really should have hit the target.
Chile continued to push for a winner, but the Germans stood firm, with sub Emre Can doing his best to impede the South Americans’ goal hopes.
Late on, sub Angelo Sagal fired over from just eight yards before Sanchez saw a sweetly-struck free-kick superbly saved by Marc-André ter Stegen.
Ultimately, Germany would stand strong to add the Confederations Cup to the European U21 title secured just a few days ago.
The fact that this was a second-string German side just highlights how strong they are as a footballing force right now, with a second consecutive World Cup triumph surely a strong possibility next summer.
As for Chile, despite the defeat, they once again showed off their impressive top-level credentials.
Don’t rule La Roja out of Russia 2018 success either!