Germany (5/1 to win European Championships 2012) claimed third place at the World Cup after winning an enthralling play-off 3-2 against Uruguay in Port Elizabeth.

Sami Khedira headed home the winning goal to ensure that Europe claims a 1-2-3 at the tournament.

The Germans took the lead in the first half, but Uruguay led 2-1 at one stage after the interval. Thomas Mueller scored his fifth goal of the tournament to edge the Germans ahead, Edison Cavani levelled and then Diego Forlan matched Mueller’s achievement by notching his fifth goal only for Marcell Jansen to make it 2-2.

The Germans had their share of luck, as Forlan hit the bar with a free-kick deep into injury time. And they might have had to play with 10 men for virtually the whole game if the referee had been harsher on Dennis Aogo’s dreadful challenge on Diego Perez.

Germany made most of the early running, forcing Jorge Fucile and Diego Lugano into some desperate clearances. The South American defence was very nearly breached on ten minutes when a deep corner from Mesut Oezil was firmly headed against the bar by Arne Friedrich, with Fernando Muslera beaten. Mueller could not wrestle home the rebound.

But Bastian Schweinsteiger paved the way for Germany’s first goal, his long range shot being spilled by Muslera for Mueller to react quickly and net the rebound.

Forlan had already worried the German rearguard with a blocked back post header from a deflected cross by the time Cavani drew the sides level. Perez superbly picked the pocket of Schweinsteiger in the centre of the park, setting in motion a break that saw the Europeans outnumbered from the outset. Luis Suarez rolled a well-weighted pass to the Palmero striker, who took a touch before stretching to prod the ball by Butt and into the net.

Uruguay might have grabbed the lead four minutes before the break. Forlan’s clever reverse pass released Suarez but the Ajax striker dragged his shot wide from a somewhat awkward angle.

Arevalo Rios found himself uncharacteristically far forward down the right and lobbed a waist-height pass back towards the edge of the box, from where Forlan showed stunning poise to volley home a terrific goal with his right foot.

Germany had posed no serious threat after the interval until they levelled up on 55 minutes. Jerome Boateng’s cross from deep on the right side was badly missed by the out-of-sorts Muslera, allowing Jansen to unconventionally knock the ball into the empty net with his head.

Stefan Kiessling was introduced by Joachim Loew to add some attacking flair at the expense of Cacau. The Bayer Leverkusen man’s clever turn in the box with quarter of an hour brought with it a scoring chance, though his drive was straight at Muslera, who batted the ball uncomfortably clear.

Loew’s side were looking the more likely side to snatch third place, and they did just that with nine minutes remaining. Another deep Oezil corner was allowed to bounce about the six yard box. Khedira ultimately got the decisive touch, sending a clever header looping over Muslera and into the top corner of the net.

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