Goalkeeper gaffes not enough to deny Germany victory.
Germany manager Joachim Low watched on nervously as his experimental team held on to beat Australia 3-2 in an edgy Confederations Cup group opener on Monday.
Low had opted to rest a number of senior stars for the tournament.
But his hand was forced in terms of goalkeeping selection, with no.1 Manuel Neuer out injured.
Neuer’s absence has given some of Germany’s understudy stoppers the chance to step up and impress.
Bayer Leverkusken’s Bernd Leno was given the nod against Australia, but impress he certainly did NOT.
Leno was at fault for both of Australia’s goals.
His first offence occurred late in the first half when he allowed a low shot from Celtic midfielder Tom Rogic slip under his body.
Rogic made it 1-1 on 41 minutes.
Rogic smashes home an equaliser for Australia – watch LIVE on ITV4 pic.twitter.com/BJJO6afet9
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 19, 2017
Leno produced another howler after the break, when he spilled a tame shot straight to Tomi Juric, who punished his error with a simple tap-in.
Juric’s easy tap-in proved to be the game’s final goal.
Australia take advantage of another Leno mistake to make it 3-2 -watch LIVE on @ITV4 pic.twitter.com/zDuiivpjzM
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 19, 2017
Fortunately for Leno, his errors were punctuated by goals from Lars Stindl, Julian Draxler and Leon Goretzka as Germany began their Russia 2017 campaign with three points.