My word, Chile were given a scare.
But the law of averages in football games suggest you can’t keep a good team down for long and so the pre-match betting odds, which suggested the two big guns in Confederations Cup 2017 Group B would progress, were proven correct.
At half-time a surprise was on the cards, however.
James Troisi chipped the ball coolly over Man City custodian Claudio Bravo and Australia led the South Americans and were even threatening to knock them out. One more goal would have been enough and the Socceroos dared to dream in Moscow.
That is until Martin Rodriguez poked home from six yards out and ended the Aussie adventure, although they will take a lot of heart from their showing.
Psychologically, Australia must have known they were unlikely to get two more goals but they came close to winning the contest and have improved as the tournament has worn on.
Just like Chile, Germany didn’t have it easy in Sochi either but the African dream was all but ended two minutes after the re-start.
That’s how long it took debutant Kerem Demirbay to fire home a right-footed drive, after some lovely skill from Julian Draxler, and make the breakthrough.
That finished off Cameroon, whose luck in this tournament seemed to be summed up when Georges Mandjeck was forced to pull-out in the warm-up.
They remain a work in progress with quality in bursts but also have a tendency to switch off in games at vital moments.
Their race was run just after the hour when Ernest Mabouka was seemingly harshly sent-off (with the help of the much-maligned VAR), moments before a fine crossfield pass from Joshua Kimmich found Timo Werner who nodded home the second.
To their credit, Cameroon kept going and were rewarded when Vincent Aboubakar halved the deficit, taking advantage of unconvincing goalkeeper from Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
But Werner, on the back of a fine season with RB Leipzig, soon swept home the third and Germany had pole position in Group B.
Chile now face European champions Portugal – it should be fascinating.
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