It was a stroke of genius from Toni Kroos but one which proved incredibly costly for one supporter.
Germany needed Kroos to break out a piece of stunning ingenuity on Saturday night to keep their World Cup alive and the Real Madrid midfielder provided it with a creative free-kick on the edge of the area.
The defending world champions trailed at the break against Sweden in their second Group F clash thanks to a brilliant Ola Toivonen goal but the German ship was steadied slightly when Marco Reus found the net shortly after half-time.
Joachim Löw was made to sweat, however, when Jerome Boateng was sent off in the final ten minutes and it looked like Germany would be forced to settle for one point from their opening two games.
But then Kroos was given the opportunity to make a massive difference as he stepped over a free-kick from an acute angle just inches from the Swedish penalty area in the dying seconds.
Due to the angle, many expected Kroos to just swing a delivery into the back post and hope to find a teammate’s head but the playmaker was tired of watching his colleagues squander chances so took matters into his own feet.
He tapped the ball into Reus, who was waiting just inside the area and cushioned it for Kroos to arc it perfectly into the far corner of Robin Olsen’s net.
When Kroos’ boot made contact with the ball, he had moved into the penalty box and, unfortunately for one punter, the difference in those few inches was £5,250.
When you need Toni Kroos to score from outside the box for £5250 of a fiver!! 🤮🔫 @SkyBet pic.twitter.com/CPkAyzuGNo
— Lee Robinson (@popbobbins) June 23, 2018
Lee Robinson was waiting on a treble to come through which also included Romelu Lukaku to score a brace and Mexico to win 2-1.
But once the ball crept into the Swedish area, the last leg of his accumulator lost.
That one had to sting!
