Germany scrape past Algeria to reach the Last 8

Goals from Andre Schürrle and Mesut Özil earn a Quarter Final berth for Die Mannschaft against an inspired Algerian side.

Germany qualified for the World Cup quarter-finals for the 16th consecutive time when they laboured to a 2-1 extra time win over the last of the African nations, Algeria.

In what was a thoroughly entertaining affair in the chill of Porto Alegre, which was a welcome change from the heat and cooling breaks, both the teams had a fair few chances to open the scoring but poor finishing and terrific, albeit hugely contrasting, goalkeeping were to prove otherwise. While Rais M’Bohli stood his ground and denied the Germans time and again to keep his side in the game, Manuel Neuer literally acted as the ‘last line of defence’ by making his trademark and fearless forays out of his penalty box to atone for his defender’s alarming lack of pace to restrain the Algerian forwards, Islam Slimani in particular. The Bayern München custodian almost made a mockery of himself in the 5th minute when he raced out of his box to confront the Algerian striker whose shot was blocked by a last minute tackle from the 6’5” keeper, showing his exemplary skills of being able to play without using his gloves. On the other hand, M’Bohli made a series of acrobatic saves to keep the match scoreless, his efforts to deny Mario Götze, Thomas Müller and Philip Lahm particularly worth a mention.
However, extra time was to bring no such luck for the passionate Africans as Müller’s low cross found substitute Andre Schürrle whose cheeky finish brought their resistance to an end. It took the Germans 24 attempts to register their first goal which came in the 2nd minute of extra time. It was a well deserved goal though as the Germans were rewarded for creating numerous chances. They pressed for a game clinching second but Mesut Özil and Müller squandered positive chances to double the advantage. Algeria had a golden chance to be back on level terms when a horrible attempt at a clearance from Sami Khedira let the ball fall kindly for Medhi Mostefa whose snapshots went inches wide, with Neuer stranded. The Germans duly punished that in the 119th minute when a trademark counter attack found Schürrle in acres of space on the edge of the Algerian penalty box. A square pass exchange with Özil later, the Chelsea attacker was denied a second when Essaid Belkalem cleared off the line, only for Özil to smash in the rebound. Abdelmoumene Djabou made sure that Algeria went home without empty hands when he netted a consolation from a Sophiane Feghouli cross, which was the last action from the game.

Germany will play France in the quarter-final and a much improved showing will be required against their European rivals, who beat Nigeria 2-0 to book a place for themselves. Defender Per Mertesacker stressed in a post match interview that it was the result which mattered and not the performance, but coach Joachim Löw knows a there will not necessarily be an escape route if they fail to get going yet again versus their much more powerful European neighbours.