While Brazil holds Switzerland with 1-1, Mexico stuns Germany by kicking off 1-0

NewsBharati    18-Jun-2018
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Moscow, June 18: Brazil's bid for a sixth World Cup got off to a slow start as Switzerland withstood an early onslaught to snatch a 1-1 draw in Rostov-on-Don on Sunday. On the day when holders Germany were shocked 1-0 by Mexico, Brazil's tag as pre-tournament favorites looked justified in a dominant first-half capped by Philippe Coutinho's wonder strike to open the scoring.

 

However, Brazil paid for their failure to kill the game off when Steven Zuber powered home an equalizer from Xherdan Shaqiri's corner five minutes after the break. The pressure will now be on Brazil to kickstart their campaign when they face Costa Rica on Friday. Earlier, Serbia beat Los Ticos 1-0 to move to the top of Group F.

However, defending champions Germany crashed to defeat in their first game at the World Cup as an enterprising Mexico refused to be intimidated by history and ran out 1-0 winners in a thrilling Group F opener. A shaky warm-up campaign had called into question the dominant form the Germans showed in qualifying, but experience and records were on their side, having won every opening game at major tournaments since Joachim Loew took over as coach in 2006.

Juan Carlos Osorio's side had other ideas, however, holding their own against the favorites' fearsome but slowing midfield and finding space at the back and seeking to end 33 years without a win against Germany.

Germany came close to leveling late in the half when a Toni Kroos free-kick was touched on to the bar by goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, and they gradually took command once Marco Reus joined the fray after an hour and introduced some pace to their attack.

But despite almost constant pressure, they were largely kept at long range, and their poor finishing rarely threatened Ochoa as Mexico held out for only their second victory against the Germans in 12 attempts.