Germany struggle with generation gap

To misquote Benjamin Franklin, in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death, taxes and Germany winning their opening game at a World Cup.

Die Mannschaft came into this clash with Mexico having won their opening game at each of the last seven tournaments. If that was not impressive enough, their last four World Cup openers have yielded 20 goals in the for column - eight against Saudi Arabia in 2002 and four against each of Costa Rica, Australia and Portugal.

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