Everton target Marvin Plattenhardt featured for Germany on Sunday.
Germany’s 2018 World Cup campaign ended in disaster as they lost 1-0 to Mexico in Moscow on Sunday afternoon, throwing their title defence into doubt.
Joachim Loew’s side were made one of the favourites to life the title once again having beaten Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final and reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals.
With 10 wins from 10 games in qualifying, Germany looked like the team to beat, but they looked completely disjointed against an impressive Mexico side.
From Carlos Vela man-marking playmaker Toni Kroos to the rapid counter-attacks, Mexico’s gameplan was ideal and executed perfectly, with Hirving Lozano bagging the only goal of the game with a calm finish from a breakaway.
Germany pushed and pushed, sending on more and more attackers, but couldn’t beat Guillermo Ochoa as Mexico claimed a famous win and landed the first major shock of the World Cup.
Germany’s plans were thrown into chaos before the game as left back Jonas Hector was ruled out with an illness, and that meant that Hertha Berlin’s Marvin Plattenhardt came in for just his seventh cap.
The 26-year-old was solid if unspectacular in possession, but left far too much space in behind for Lozano to take advantage, and he was eventually replaced by Mario Gomez as Germany chased an equaliser.
On Sunday morning, the Daily Star reported that Plattenhardt is closing in on a £16million move to Everton, and Toffees fans were somewhat split by his display, with some suggesting that they must splash the cash to sign him, and others less than convinced.
Non-Everton fans also commented on Plattenhardt’s display, claiming he was worse than Liverpool flop Alberto Moreno defensively, with some criticising him for an anonymous display.
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