Germany showed their legendary resilience on Saturday when they came from behind to beat Uruguay 3-2 in a thrilling third-place World Cup playoff.

Having led early on, the Germans fell 2-1 behind early in the second half but equalized soon after and Sami Khedira headed the winner eight minutes from time.

There was still time for great chances at both ends with Diego Forlan hitting the bar with a stoppage-time free kick.

Forlan and Thomas Mueller, scorer of Germany's opener, both finish the tournament on five goals, level with Spain's David Villa and Wesley Sneijder of Netherlands -- who can of course add to their tally in Sunday's final.

"Champions rise again, we rose to the occasion again. We have every reason to be fully satisfied, no reason for disappointment, we will travel home feeling great," said German coach Joachim Loew.

Uruguay too deserve huge credit for their attacking approach in the match but had to settle for fourth, just as they did last time they reached the semi-finals in 1970 when they were also beaten by then-West Germany in the playoff.

"We showed our purpose and intentions, on a level playing field against a great opponent," said coach Oscar Tavarez. "We showed we can play any team in the world, there's nothing above this. We lost, but we could have won."

Flu victims
Miroslav Klose's bid to find the one goal he needed to join Ronaldo at the top of the all-time scorer's list on 15 ended when he was ruled out by flu and spent the match on the bench looking very pale alongside fellow victims Lukas Podolksi and Philipp Lahm.

Attention turned instead to the race for the tournament golden boot when Mueller scored after 19 minutes after Fernando Muslera failed to hold Bastian Schweinsteiger's long-range shot.

Rain
As the rain lashed down to add an extra element of drama, the game surged from box to box with Luis Suarez, booed at every touch by sections of the crowd unimpressed by his handball against Ghana, missing several good chances and substitute Stefan Kiessling blasting over a sitter for the Germans.

Just as extra time looked likely, Germany struck again as a Mesut Ozil corner bounced around in the six yard box before Khedira nodded it in.

Uruguay, so close to elimination by Ghana in the quarter-finals, will go home to a heroes' welcome after their best performance for 40 years and though German fans are more used to their team reaching finals, they too will no doubt appreciate the efforts of their young team who handed both England and Argentina four-goal thrashings.

"We've done well here," said Khedira. "But next time we want to get to the next level."

Source: Reuters