All that talent, all that expectation, and in the end it came down to a first-half own goal, scored by Mats Hummels. But don’t think that the story of this game between the last two World Cup winners, the opening night that could have been the climax of the entire competition, can be told so easily.
Don’t believe that France will be removed easily, either. After a difficult first half Germany tried everything here – at one point Antonio Rüdiger even appeared to bite Paul Pogba – and might have succeeded with better finishing from Serge Gnabry or greater clarity in the final, tense minutes, but there was no way through.
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