By Telema Davies
Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador – the over 50,000 capacity stadium had fans fill the seats to see the world’s best footballer. Cristiano Ronaldo was just the man to watch in this encounter against the German team also referred to as Die Mannschaft. Although, lots of news making round prior to the commencement of the game was Ronaldo’s injury concerns. But that seemed to settle down as he was given the all clear to lead out his country.
It however was never to be as eventful as the 2014 Ballon d’Or winner would have imagined. Germany turned out to be just the team to beat proving them as one of the favourites in the tournament. Clearly, the Germans’ supreme victories over the Portuguese continues and that, in itself is a clear verdict on A Selecção. In Salvador, a shared cultural heritage with the host Brazil, was never going to be enough to rescue Ronaldo’s Portugal.
The Germans played expectedly as a unit, a direct contradiction to the one-man dependent Portugal, who seemed clueless on occasions. The Nationaleif were much more clinical in scoring as they mauled the Portuguese 4-0 to go top of Group G. Thomas Mueller, who was voted Budweiser Man of the Match, became the first player to score a hat-trick in Brazil. The result does not have a reflection on the match stats which shows that both teams were at each other’s jugular.
Portugal never seemed to establish a strong footing in the game from start to finish as their European counterparts did. A two-goal lead through a well converted penalty from Mueller and a thumping header from Mats Hummels resulting from a corner, was the needed edge for Germany. Then, things began to turn sour for Portugal with the initial loss of Hugo Almeida to a challenge from Hummels. It went bad when Pepe was shown a straight red card for head-butting Thomas Mueller.
Then from bad, it went to worse, as Fabio Coentrao pulled his groin as he made a stretched run to pick a pass. Playing a man down and with two key players taken off with injuries, any possibility of a comeback only seemed probable. Tried as they could, it wasn’t just a good day at the office for Cristiano Ronaldo and his compatriots. Now, Portugal must look to Sunday to perhaps, redeem themselves from a possible early exit from the group stage.
Germany will be keen to continue the fine start when they clash with Ghana in the other group encounter. Maximum points to be secured by the Germans look all the more likely to record a 100% in performance and result in Group G. A 4-0 win was short of flattery for the Germans, who should have had the highest number of goal tally in the competition so far. Notwithstanding the goal margin, it was a superb effort from the 3-time champions of the FIFA World Cup™.
A late Ronaldo free kick got a good reaction from Neuer to keep a clean sheet.