The World hails 'dangerous' Thomas Muller after 'magnificent' hat-trick

Thomas Muller has already got Germans dreaming of winning an elusive fourth World Cup after he stole Cristiano Ronaldo’s thunder with a hat-trick in yesterday’s Group G opening match against Portugal in Salvador.

Muller’s treble in the impressive 4-0 success continued the remarkable World Cup scoring rate of the Bayern Munich forward who had previously hit five goals at the 2010 finals to win the Golden Shoe, yet he declared afterwards that he was more interested in the ultimate prize. “We are here to be world champions and not to break records,” he said.

Germany have gone 18 years without a major trophy and Muller’s ambitious statement echoed the headline in yesterday morning’s Kicker magazine which had quoted the same player as saying ”We’re here to do something big”. His subsequent performance in front of watching German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested a determination to live up to those words. - Independent