Reporter : Mark Young Follow @markyoung1988
A Thomas Muller hat trick and a Pepe red card assisted Germany to a 4-0 rout of Portugal in their opening Group G encounter on Tuesday.
Muller was in the right places at the right time and even played a part as the red mist descended over Pepe as the fiery Real Madrid defender took his marching orders shortly after Mats Hummels had put the Germans two goals up.
The first half started as the game meant to go on with Germany in control but Portugal were looking threatening on the counter attack.
Within seven minutes Philipp Lahm, playing in the centre of a midfield three lost possession to his counter part Miguel Veloso 30 yards out from goal. He then fed Ronaldo galloping down the left hand side but left himself a difficult angle for the strike that was saved by Manuel Neuer.
From that same missed chance Germany broke forward but just when it seemed to have found Rui Patricio in the Portugal goal but his clearance found Sami Khedira who strikes first time but misses the open goal from 40 yards out.
It wasn’t to be long after that Germany opened the scoring. Some slick play between the German midfield down the right hand side found Gotze in the middle of the area. The Bayern Munich midfielder was fouled under Pereira pressure and the penalty awarded which Muller slotted past Patricio.
The ineffective Hugo Almeida was then taken off with an injury and replaced by Braga front man Eder but it was Germany creating all the opportunities.
Mesut Ozil found himself free in the box from more superb midfield play. The Arsenal man found Gotze with a late run but Pereira redeemed himself with a brilliant block.
The resulting corner from Toni Kroos was met by Borussia Dortmund centre back Mats Hummels. His bullet header left the Portugal defence and goalkeeper with no chance leaving Germany two nil up and cruising.
Fabio Coentrao had a chance to half the deficit but he found himself in two minds as to whether cross to Ronaldo or shoot and it seemed he did neither.
Then came some controversy where Pepe lost his head by finding Muller’s.
Muller was shown to have dived after a Pepe challenge with the centre back taking great dis pleasure in this. He then put his head into the German attacker in a threatening manner and for two seconds of seeing red, Pepe was sent off.
It went from bad to worse just before half time as another good delivery from Kroos wasn’t dealt with by Bruno Alves and that man Muller struck again to make it 3-0 at the break.
The second half was a much more tepid affair as Germany tried sitting back and hitting their opponents on the counter attack.
More bad news was to come for Portugal though as left back Fabio Coentrao pulled up with a painful looking muscle injury and was replaced by Andre Almeida shortly after the hour mark.
It was to be one all in the injury stakes though as goal scorer Mats Hummels went down with 15 minutes to go to be replaced by Shkodran Mustafi.
Germany, playing on the break picked their chances well with Mario Gotze having the best of the German attacks as he was played through by substitute Andre Schurrle only to be foiled by good defending.
Portugal will feel that they should have had a penalty on 75 minutes as Eder was brought down inside the area by Howedes but no penalty was given, leaving Ronaldo and company very frustrated.
Although Portugal were denied, Muller was not to be as he bagged his hat trick goal with 12 minutes remaining after a Schurrle cross brought some poor goalkeeping from Patricio.
Ronaldo was to have two free kick chances as the clock ticked down but he remained largely frustrated as the Germans and Muller had a more than satisfactory day at the office.