In the group of death, every point matters. Suffering defeat in game week one, Germany simply showed more urgency en route to taking down the defending champions Portugal 4-2.

The Portuguese put group co-hosts Hungary to the sword in their opening fixture. A win against Germany would have sent A Seleção through to the knockouts. But Saturday’s hosts had other ideas.

The Germans — desperately needing three points — welcomed Cristiano Ronaldo and co. into the Allianz Arena. But the kindness finished as soon as Anthony Taylor’s whistle sounded off for the first time. In summary, despite going behind early, Germany wanted it more.

After being outplayed and limited to a few chances by the reigning world champions France last week, Joachim Löw’s side responded admirably. The intensity was up. There was visibly more intent going forward. Every sequence of play just had more conviction to it.

Once Portugal broke the deadlock, it seemed as though they were not expecting a response as aggressive as the one they received. With the win, Die Mannschaft made things very interesting in Group F ahead of the final set of group stage fixtures.

Good response to an early blow

Portugal went ahead with the first quarter of an hour. Continuing to resist father time’s approaches, Cristiano Ronaldo once again showed that he is aging like fine wine. After contributing defensively during a Germany set-piece, the 36-year-old took off.

Still showing that same hunger to be the first one down the other end of the pitch, Ronaldo led the way with a length of the field sprint and put himself in position for his teammates to find him. Diogo Jota was that teammate on this occasion.

Bouncing back from a disappointing game last week, the Liverpool man received a lovely looping ball into his stride from Bernardo Silva. Touching it down, Jota was well into the box and with Ronaldo waiting for the ball to be squared for a tap-in. With the latter holding his run well, Jota obliged and the defending champions were ahead.

That was a fine response to conceding an early goal from Fernando Santos’ side. Fortunately for them, that Robin Gosens strike was disallowed. But we will talk about him more in a moment. A Seleção did well to regroup and break the deadlock. But they did follow it up by taking their foot off the gas.

The Germans went on to take full advantage. Four minutes of madness on the brink of half-time saw Löw’s side peel ahead and go into the break with all of the momentum — up 2-1 — thanks to own goals from Ruben Dias and Raphael Guerreiro. The hosts were extremely dangerous out wide and they made Portugal pay with inviting crosses invading the corridor of uncertainty and forcing opportunistic errors.

The Robin Gosens show

An unlikely hero, to say the least, the German left wing-back caught fire after the interval. After forcing Dias to bundle the ball into his own net with a great cross in the first half, Die Mannschaft’s attacking play went strictly through Gosens in the second.

In a twin-like move, Gosens was once again found marauding in acres of space out on the left-hand side. Breaking into the box with his first touch, the Atalanta defender drilled another great ball across the six-yard box, this time finding Chelsea’s Kai Havertz who tapped it home.

At that point, this was already a sensational breakout performance from the 26-year-old; and he wasn’t done yet.

With the clock right on the hour mark, Germany moved down the right this time and it was the marvelous Joshua Kimmich who turned provider. Whipping a delicious ball onto the back post, Kimmich found the head of the onrushing Gosens who smashed home to make it 4-1. The curtains were ready to drop at that point. It was game on in Group F.

But the last word still belonged to Portugal. Perhaps a sign of positive momentum heading into the nail-biter against France on Wednesday, Ronaldo returned the favor to Jota seven minutes later. A goal eerily similar to the one that saw the visitors go ahead, Jota was in the right place at the right time to tap in a cross-goal ball from his skipper into an empty net.

Germany now in pole position

The crucial three points have catapulted the Germans into second place in the group. Die Mannschaft will play Hungary — at home — on Wednesday and will surely be favored to top the group. Despite the Magyars stealing a point off France in Saturday’s premiere game, the odds will still be firmly against the ambitious Hungarians.

Assuming Germany snatches the three points, things will get very interesting for France and Portugal — facing each other. With four best third-place teams advancing into the knockouts, you would fancy both to still make it through. But it’s far from a cosy situation.

All of the third-placed teams across the six groups are on minimum a point. This means that Portugal in particular should and will be desperate to win against the world champions in order to secure their stay in the tournament. France, currently on four points, should be fine regardless. But you just never know.

Looking at how the strength of this group, this was always going to be the case. One of the powerhouse nations was always going to be in danger of elimination and that’s the beauty of tournament football. We are not even out of the group stages yet and the reigning world champions or the defending European champions could be going home by mid-week.