Hirving Lozano's first half goal power Mexico to 1-0 victory over Germany
- FIFA Confederation Cup champions Germany were beaten by Mexico in their first game of the 2018 World Cup in Russia
- The defending champions were stunned by a 35th minute carefully crafted goal by PSV Eindoven winger Hirving Lozano
- Mexico will now face South Korea in their next game while Germany battle Sweden to redeem their image
Defending champions Germany got their title defence off to a losing start after bowing to Mexico in their opening Group F encounter at the Luzhniki Stadium.
PSV Eindoven winger Hirving Lozano fired the south American country to their first victory of the tournament after hitting the Germans on a counter.
The 22-year-old forward dribbled past his opponents before carefully placing the ball beyond Manuel Neuer's reach in the 35th minute of the encounter having benefited from a brilliant 1-2 between Javier Hernandez and Andres Guardado.
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Barely two minutes after, Sami Khedira's shot from danger zone was blocked to keep the scoreline the way it was after the first 35 minutes of play.
The 2014 defending champions continued to mount pressure on their south American opponents, but Juan Carlos Osorio's men were disciplined enough not to allow the Germans break their defence let alone concede in the first half of the meeting.
With the first half running to an end, Germany tried to get an equaliser but all of their efforts were truncated by the solid Mexico defenders.
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As they also tried to stun the European side on the counter again before the Iranian center referee Alireza Faghani signaled the end of the first stanza of the game.
Having rested for 15 minutes, both sides returned to action for the remainder of the game but in spite of the numerous attack by the Germans, Mexico kept their shape all through the game.
Low made some tactical changes by replacing Sami Khedira with Marco Reus to add fire power to their attack, but as promising as the substitution looked, they failed to hit the target.
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Mario Gomez and Julian Brandt also came in for the duo of Marvin Plattenhardt and Timo Werner but the Mexicans managed to keep a clean sheet in their opening encounter.
Former Barcelona star Rafael Marquez was introduced 15 minutes to the end of the game as Andres Guardado was rested for the game.
Meanwhile, 39-year-old defender is making his as one of the three players to have featured in five FIFA World Cup competitions.
Other players to have the same record are Lothar Matthaus and former Mexico international Antonio Carbajal.
As it stands, Mexico are at the summit of Group F table pending the result of the second game between Sweden and South Korea on Monday, June 18.
Meanwhile, the south Americans will hope to continue their fine form as they face the only Asian country in their group on June 23.
While Germany risk being bundled out of the tournament at its very first stage if they fail to beat Sweden in their second group game on the same day.
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Legit.ng earlier reported that Manchester City attacker Leroy Sane was surprisingly dropped from Germany's World Cup squad to Russia.
Coach Joachim Low announced his final 23-man list and the Premier League's PFA Young Player of the Year was clearly missing from the team.
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made the cut after an eight-month absence from injury and featured in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Austria.
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Source: Legit.ng
