Germany vs Mexico: 5 Talking Points, World Cup 2018

#5 Mexico fail to make their advantage count... But hold on for the win

Guillermo Ochoa was called into action many times in the second half

As Mexico held on to a slender 1-0 lead, Germany continued to push forward and pushed their defensive line all the way into Mexico's half. With just a 1-0 lead to protect, Mexico decided to sit back and break on the counter only when they had to.

What they could have done was post one or two players near the halfway line but they opted to sit deep and deny Germany any space to work with. Osorio had even withdrawn Carlos Vela and Lozano for Edson Alvarez and Raul Jimenez to switch to a deep 5-4-1 formation.

As a result, Low went to Plan B and substituted Marvin Plattenhardt to bring on Mario Gomez up front with 20 minutes to go. If not for goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and some heroic defending in the box, Germany would have equalised.

1-0 may have been enough but Mexico were guilty of being wasteful when they could have stretched their lead time and again. A number of counter-attacks either fizzled out because the final ball was poor or because they couldn't keep their shots on target.

But in the end, it was Mexico who collected all three points to hand the defending champions their first loss in the World Cup since 2010.