Two years, one month and 12 days after one of the darkest days in its
sporting history, Brazil will get its Mineirazo rematch.
Germany
held off Nigeria 2-0 in the second of two men’s Olympic soccer semifinals
Wednesday to set up a gold medal showdown with the Brazilians on Saturday. It
will be the hosts’ first opportunity to avenge their infamous 7-1 World Cup
semifinal loss from 2014.
Nothing
Brazil does Saturday will erase the nightmares of that night two years ago in
Belo Horizonte. The Olympics are an under-23 competition. Only one member of
Germany’s Olympic squad, Matthias Ginter,
was part of that German World Cup team.
But
the circumstances, in a way, will be similar. The Brazilians are on home
soil and under tremendous pressure. And these are the two best teams at the
tournament. Brazil did its part earlier Wednesday to prove that.
Germany followed it up with a similarly impressive performance, even if the
final scoreline wasn’t as convincing.
It
was left back Lukas Klostermann’s 9th minute goal that lifted the Germans into
the lead, and eventually into the final. Serge Gnabry’s
splitting pass from the edge of the box played in Max Meyer, and
Meyer’s square cross left Klostermann with nothing to do but tap into an empty
net at the far post.
The
Nigerians, who posed an intermittent threat to Germany’s gold medal hopes
throughout the 90 minutes, had been the non-Brazilian story of the tournament
prior to Wednesday. They only arrived in Brazil hours before their opening game
because of multiple flight cancellations. Theypromptly scored five goals in that opener, and won their
group.
They
had multiple chances to draw level in the first half. Tall, lanky striker Umar Sadiq failed
to get a clean shot off when free near the top of the box.
Later,
in the 31st minute, Sadiq did get his shot off as he spun after receiving a
cross, but it was blocked out to John Obi Mikel at
the top of the box. Mikel sent two German defenders sprawling to the grass with
fake shots and cuts, but a third flew in to block the Nigerian captain’s
attempt at goal.
Germany
had chances to double the lead too. Nigerian goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel smothered
a point-blank effort from Lars Bender,
who found himself free in the box and on the end of Niklas Sule’s knock-down
header.
The
Germans really pushed for a second on either side of halftime. Max Meyer sent a
left-footed drive over the bar, and striker Davie Selke tested
Daniel a few minutes later. Immediately after the break, Gnabry forced another
good save from Daniel; Selke rounded him a minute later, but couldn’t
convert from a tough angle with his momentum carrying him wide.
Gnabry
had another good chance in the 58th minute, but fired wide at the near post
with two German attackers waiting to pounce on a cross in the middle.
The
Germans also needed some crucial interventions from their center backs —
namely Ginter — to stifle a Nigerian attack that had scored 10 goals through
four games. The Borussia
Dortmund defender slid in with a precise tackle to deny Aminu Umar right
before halftime.
Nigeria’s
sights at goal became more and more obscured as the second half wore on though.
Germany’s senior defensive midfield pairing of twins Lars Bender and Sven Bender suffocated
Nigeria’s exciting young forwards.
In
the 90th minute, German substitute Nils Peterson ensured his team’s progression
to the final.Julian Brandt sent
Selke in with a through ball, and the Germans broke 4-on-2. Selke’s low cross
was slid home by Peterson at a tight angle to make it 2-0.
Germany
and Brazil will kick off at Maracana Stadium at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday. Nigeria
will meet Honduras in the bronze medal match at noon ET
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