Kroos hits stoppage-time stunner to keep Germany's World Cup alive
AFP / Odd ANDERSENToni Kroos celebrates after scoring Germany's late winner against Sweden in Sochi
Toni Kroos rescued Germany's World Cup hopes in dramatic fashion on Saturday, curling in a stunning free-kick deep in injury time to seal a 2-1 win against Sweden.
The defending champions were in desperate trouble when Ola Toivonen put the Swedes ahead in the first half and even though Marco Reus equalised shortly after the interval, Joachim Loew's men could not find the goal they craved as time ticked away.
Germany's task was made more difficult when key defender Jerome Boateng was sent off in the 82st minute for a second yellow card.
But Kroos stepped up in the 95th minute to curl a free-kick from the left edge of the penalty area into the top corner, beating the despairing dive of Robin Olsen, who had been outstanding in the Swedish goal.
The result in Sochi means Germany join Sweden on three points in Group F, with Mexico in the lead on six points after their earlier victory against South Korea, who have no points after two games.
The final games in the group on Wednesday pit South Korea against Germany and Mexico against Sweden.
AFP / Khaled DESOUKIJavier Hernandez scored his 50th international goal for Mexico
Mexico showed that their shock defeat of Germany last weekend was no fluke with a 2-1 defeat of South Korea in Rostov-on-Don.
West Ham striker Javier Hernandez grabbed his 50th international goal while Los Angeles FC forward Carlos Vela was also on target from the penalty spot.
South Korea scored a late consolation strike from Tottenham's Son Heung-min, but it was too little, too late for the Asian giants, who desperately needed a victory after losing to Sweden in their opening game.
"Sometimes against teams that have less of a footballing tradition than the biggest nations, you can tend to rest on your laurels and lose concentration," said Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio.
"But it was a deserved victory. We are very happy and we share that with the whole of the country."
- Lukaku, Hazard strike -
Earlier, Belgium powered towards the last 16, producing an imperious display to overwhelm Tunisia, with Premier League stars Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard scoring two apiece in a 5-2 rout at Moscow's Spartak Stadium.
The one-sided victory cemented Belgium's place at the top of Group G and all but guaranteed their place in the knockout rounds, with just one group game, against England, remaining.
Manchester United striker Lukaku took his goals tally to the tournament to four as the Red Devils carved open Tunisia's defence with an impressive attacking display.
Chelsea playmaker Hazard fired Belgium into an early lead from the penalty spot before Lukaku found the net in the 16th minute, adding another on the stroke of half-time.
Hazard added another in the 51st minute before substitute Michy Batshuayi added the fifth in the 90th minute.
AFP / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEVRomelu Lukaku scored twice to draw level with Cristiano Ronaldo on four goals
Dylan Bronn and captain Wahbi Khazri grabbed consolation goals for Tunisia, who now face almost certain elimination.
"We are a good team, we want to reach the final and we are stronger than four years ago," said Hazard, the man-of-the-match.
"The match was easy because we scored after five minutes and knew Tunisia would leave spaces as they needed to win, making it easier for us."
Belgium and England will qualify for the last 16 on Sunday if England defeat Panama in Nizhny Novgorod.
The fallout from Friday's politically charged clash between Switzerland and Serbia rumbled on Saturday.
Switzerland snatched a dramatic 2-1 win over Serbia on Friday courtesy of goals from Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri.
Both Xhaka and Shaqiri, who have roots in Kosovo, a former province of Serbia that has declared independence in a move not recognised by Belgrade, celebrated their goals by making a gesture representing the Albanian flag.
The Serbian press slammed the celebrations as "shameful provocation."
Serbia coach Mladen Krstajic demanded German match referee Felix Brych be tried as a war criminal in The Hague after failing to award his team a penalty.
"We were robbed," Mladen Krstajic told Serbian reporters on Saturday, when asked about Brych's decision.
"I wouldn't give him either a yellow or red card, I would send him to The Hague. Then they could put him on trial, like they did to us."
The now-defunct Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was a UN body that prosecutes the perpetrators of war crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Blast rocks Zimbabwe president's rally
AFP / ZINYANGE AUNTONYZimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is facing a ballot box test next month
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Saturday he narrowly survived an attempt on his life after a blast at a party rally that injured two of his vice-presidents and several party officials.
Fifteen people were hurt, three of them seriously, in the explosion during an election campaign event in Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo, according to Health Minister David Parirenyatwa.
Footage circulating on social media showed an explosion and plumes of smoke around the president as he descended stairs from the podium at the city's White City stadium.
Mnangagwa suggested he was the target of the attack, which he said also injured Vice-Presidents Kembo Mohadi and Constantino Chiwenga.
"I am used to these attempts," Mnangagwa told state media, adding that an object "exploded a few inches away from me -- but it is not my time".
ZANU-PF chairwoman and cabinet minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Mary Chiwenga, the wife of vice president Chiwenga, were also among those injured, he said, as was deputy parliament speaker Mabel Chinomona.
- 'Senseless act of violence' -
The "blast... has affected my vice-presidents -- especially comrade Mohadi," he added.
Mohadi suffered leg injuries, while Chiwenga had slight bruises to his face, according to the presidential spokesman George Charamba.
State broadcaster ZBC described the blast as "an assassination attempt".
But Mnangagwa insisted that the "country is peaceful" as Zimbabwe prepares to stage its first ever elections not to feature former president Robert Mugabe on July 30.
"Several people were affected by the blast, and I have already been to visit them in the hospital," Mnangagwa wrote on his verified Facebook account describing the attack as a "senseless act of violence".
"The campaign so far has been conducted in a free and peaceful environment, and we will not allow this cowardly act to get in our way as we move towards elections."
State media also reported that the ZANU-PF party secretary in charge of political organisation, Engelbert Rugeje, was injured, as were several security personnel.
Injured ZANU-PF supporters were pictured in a nearby hospital where one man wearing a blood-stained party T-shirt waited for treatment.
According to Charamba, the president was "evacuated successfully" to his official residence in Bulawayo.
- 'People started running' -
Mnangagwa had been in the city to campaign for votes ahead of nationwide elections due on July 30.
"People started running in all directions and then immediately the president's motorcade left at a very high speed. Suddenly soldiers and other security details were all over the place," said an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Bulawayo has long been a bastion of opposition to the ZANU-PF and it was Mnangagwa's first rally in the city.
The polls in five weeks will be the first since Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe resigned following a brief military takeover in November last year after 37 years in power.
The intervention by the army was led by Chiwenga who was then head of the armed forces.
The vote will be a key test for Mnangagwa, 75, who succeeded the 94-year-old autocrat and remains untested at the ballot box.
He has pledged to hold free and fair elections as he seeks to mend international relations and have sanctions against Zimbabwe dropped.
Previous elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by electoral fraud, intimidation and violence, including the killing of scores of opposition supporters in 2008.
Chipo Dendere, a Zimbabwean professor of political science at Amherst College in the US, said the incident would change the tone of the election campaign.
"This is going to make everyone a little bit tense... this is the first time we have seen such a blatant attack," she said blaming divisions inside the ruling ZANU-PF for the attack.
"Whatever internal fissures existed within ZANU-PF before (the coup in) November, those fissures didn’t go away."
Mnangagwa has been accused of involvement in the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s that claimed the lives of around 20,000 regime opponents in the country's southwest where Bulawayo is situated.
Twenty-three candidates –- the highest number in the country's history -- will contest the presidential race.
The main competition will be between Mnangagwa and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change's leader, 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa.
Chamisa condemned the attack, tweeting that "violence must have no place in our politics".
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