PORTO ALEGRE // Joachim Loew dismissed criticism of his Germany side after watching the World Cup hopefuls require extra-time to beat an irrepressible Algeria side 2-1 and secure a place in the quarter-finals.
Courtesy of late goals from Andre Schurrle and Mesut Ozil, Germany will meet France in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. Yet if they are to progress any further they will need to improve. Loew called Monday night's win "a victory of will", but it was more a survival of the fittest.
After 90 engrossing minutes of regular time, nothing separated the two teams except 20 positions in Fifa's world rankings. Algeria had threatened throughout, while Germany had struggled to seriously test Rais M'bolhi in the opposition goal.
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Yet with the first attack after the restart, a mistake by Algeria's Aissa Mandi allowed Thomas Muller to cross from the right and, with the ball slightly behind Schurrle, the Chelsea forward was able to stick out a leg and direct a neat back-heel past Rais.
"It's not a stroll in the park in the World Cup," Loew, who had introduced Schurrle at half-time, said. "There are always some matches like this in a tournament where you have teams that fight hard; where the opponents are defending really tough and playing aggressively. You need matches like this one at the World Cup. At some point you've got to expect a match will go into extra time."
The German goal had appeared inevitable as the clock ticked towards full-time, yet it had been Algeria who had started the match the more likely to open the scoring. Their pace in attack was evident as early as the ninth minute when Islam Slimani forced Manuel Neuer to rush out of his area and block the forward's angled shot from the left wing.
Moments later, Sofiane Feghouli fired high from a tight angle when a low ball across the face of goal would have posed far more of a problem for the German backline. In the 15th minute, Slimani thought he had opened the scoring with a diving header, but the Sporting forward had strayed offside. When Faouzi Ghoulam skipped down the right wing, his shot curled wide of the post.
"The [next] match has to be better," Loew said. "We gave up the ball too much, especially in the first half, and practically invited Algeria to run counter attacks against us. We were the better team in the second half. We had enough chances to have decided it before going to extra time."
Even late in the first half, signs were there that Germany were improving. Algerian goalkeeper Rais had to beat away a fierce drive from Toni Kroos and showed alertness to then follow up and smother Mario Gotze's rebound. Early in the second period, he expertly tipped Philipp Lahm's effort past the post.
Midway through the second half, with Loew forced to introduce Sami Khedira for the injured Shkodran Mustafi, Algeria were able to capitalise on the German defence no longer having the protection of Lahm, who had switched to right-back. With the game more stretched, Algeria repeatedly tested Neuer's ability to rush off his line.
Yet this is a German side that appear menacing in attack even if not overly formidable at the back. As the full-time whistle neared, Muller got to the byline, but Bastian Schweinsteiger's header went wide and, later, Muller's free header went straight at Rais. Substitute Schurrle's rebound was cleared off the line.
"We were in better physical shape than Algeria," Loew said. "At the end of the day it was a victory of will, our strength of will. You could see [Algeria] were quite knocked out after 90 minutes and not able to play all out in extra time the way we were."
After Schurrle's 92nd minute strike – his fifth in as many games for his country – Germany continued to exploit the space left by Algeria's push for an equaliser. The second came in the 120th minute, when Mesut Ozil drilled emphatically past Rais after dawdling in the build-up. Algeria pulled one back immediately through Abdelmoumene Djabou, but the damage was done.
Vahid Halilhodzic, the Bosnian coach of Algeria, was seen in tears at the end of the match and failed to appear for his post-match press conference. Madjid Bougherra, the captain of the North Africans, however, preferred to look to the positives.
"If we had scored in the first half, it would have given us more confidence and spirit, but this is football," Bougherra said. "We have a quality team and there are many positive things for the future. We believed until the very last second, but the team is young and we are very proud. We've acquired a lot of experience and this generation can achieve great things. Our objective is now to win the Nations Cup. If we play with this kind of heart, we can really succeed."
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
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