Joshua Kimmich is in the final of the Confederations Cup with the German national team! Die Mannschaft beat Mexico 4-1 in Thursday evening’s semi-final in front of 37,923 fans in Sotschi thanks to goals from Leon Goretzka (6,8), Timo Werner (59) and Amin Younes (90+1). Germany will now meet Chile and Arturo Vidal in the final in St. Petersburg on Sunday (20:00 CEST).
Kimmich was again named in coach Joachim Löw’s starting line-up for the fourth game in Russia, along with his soon-to-be teammate Sebastian Rudy, and again he also took over the captain’s armband in the closing stages. This time he was on the right of the back three, as he was in the opening game against Australia. Niklas Süle, the other incoming FCB arrival, was not involved.
The world champions put Mexico under pressure from the word go through aggressive pressing and got off to a dream start. Goretzka opened the scoring in just the sixth minute with a placed low shot from 18 yards out – and the Schalke man made it 2-0 shortly after, latching onto Werner’s through ball. Werner then had a chance to score a third goal himself but couldn’t beat Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.
Goals to the end
Germany faded after that and Mexico dominated the rest of the match. Chicharito had two chances to pull a goal back before the break and Raul Jimenez had one shortly after the restart. Then Löw’s side confirmed the result: Werner, who shortly before had been one on one with Ochoa, had the simple task of firing the ball into an empty net on 59 minutes after great work from Julian Draxler and Jonas Hector.
Mexico kept fighting until the end to at least find a consolation goal. However André ter Stegen was on hand to deny Miguel Layun and Rafael Marques, while a header from Raul Jimenez in the 75th minute hit the upright. In the 89th minute, Marco Fabian finally gave El Tri something to celebrate with a rocket into the top corner. Germany had the final say, though, as Younes slotted a low shot into the far corner to make it 4-1 in injury time.
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