On Day Eight at the Confederations Cup we said goodbye to Australia and Cameroon, neither will be missed but we’ll probably have to see both at next year’s World Cup. Germany and Chile progressed to the semis as expected but Chile survived a scare against Australia while Germany overcame Cameroon.

The first half in Sochi between Germany and Cameroon was possibly the most boring and poorest half of football I’ve ever seen, there’s no way to sugar coat it. And with that, we’ll move on to the second half where there were 4 goals! The World Champions took the lead after a stunning strike from Hoffenheim midfielder, Kerem Demirbay, who fired a shot into the top corner from a fair distance out. Then more VAR carnage at the Confed Cup as the referee books Sebastian Siani for a foul he didn’t actually commit, he then proceeds to go to VAR to evaluate his decision but continues to punish the wrong player. Siani is shown a red card but the referee finally comes to his senses and sends his team mate, Ernest Mabouka, off.

Germany doubled their lead a few minutes later through a stooping header from Timo Werner after a deep cross found the German unmarked in the box. Vincent Aboubakar pulled one back with a header before Werner scored his second, slotting home neatly after Benjamin Hendrichs’ cut-back. Germany secured a 3-1 victory and progressed as group winners while Cameroon went home in last.

In the group’s other game, Australia had to beat Chile by 2 goals in order to make it out of the group at Chile’s expense. Things were looking promising for the Socceroos after James Troisi put them ahead but it was not all Australia’s making. Manchester City flop, Claudio Bravo (sporting a new beard), made his first appearance in the Confed Cup and he hasn’t changed at all. Bravo played a careless ball to one of his team mates in midfield, who could not hold on to it because he was put under so much pressure by his keeper. The ball ended up at the back post and Troisi dinked past a hapless Bravo to put Australia ahead.

The Aussies looked like doubling their lead and were much the better team, Tim Cahill was also being a menace to the Chilean defence. However, they came up just short as Martin Rodriguez scored his first international goal for Chile and with that, completely killed the game, cheers Martin. Chile scraped the draw against a plucky Australian team which saw them through to play Portugal in the semi-finals in Kazan in just 3 days’ time. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Germany will play Mexico in Sochi. And yes, that does mean you’ll have to go TWO days without Confed Cup action but I see it as a life improvement.