AL KHOR, Qatar — This is how fine the margins can be: Had Nico Schlotterbeck not raced back, his jaw tight with effort, to steal the ball from Álvaro Morata’s feet, Germany’s World Cup would hang by a thread. For the second tournament in a row, a group stage exit would loom. Questions would be asked, culprits sought, knives sharpened.
But Schlotterbeck did race back, straining every sinew to close the gap to Morata, and he did slide in, his timing perfect, and he did steal the ball from his feet, and now it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Germany might find itself — in a couple of weeks’ time — preparing for a World Cup semifinal, the scent of unlikely glory in its nostrils.