World Cup 2018: Mats Hummels says Germany's dramatic win over Sweden could be their turning point

The defender sat out of the 2-1 win in Sochi with a minor neck injury

Mats Hummels believes that Toni Kroos’ spectacular late free-kick against Sweden in Sochi could be the moment Germany's World Cup campaign changes for the better.

Die Mannschaft, the current holders, appeared to be heading for a group-stage exit as stoppage time began at the Fisht Stadium with the score at 1-1.

Kroos’ late intervention, however, means Germany can guarantee qualification by bettering Sweden’s result in the final round of Group F games.

After losing their opening game to Mexico in Moscow, Joachim Low’s side may have to make do with a second-place finish but Hummels, who missed Saturday’s victory through injury, believes the win could yet be a turning point.

“At the minute it feels good,” the Bayern Munich defender said. “Could it be the moment we look back on when things changed and helped us win the World Cup? Of course. Something like this can have a big impact.

“But we cannot get carried away,” Hummels added. “If we go and make mistakes against South Korea in the next game it means nothing.

“It was a good result, an important goal and an important moment. But now we have to go out and prove that we can be way better. We’ll need to do that if we want to win this tournament – which we do.”

Hummels played in the opening defeat to Mexico and, despite going behind and being frustrated for much of the evening against Sweden, he believes signs of improvement were there.

“We were better than last time against Mexico but not as good as we have to be of course. We have to better in the next game and that’s what we are talking about,” he said.

“It wasn’t perfect but from an emotional side, that late goal was a very, very good thing for us. It gives us a feeling we can improve, we can get better.

“We know that if we had lost we could have come in for a lot of criticism. Hopefully now we can move on.”

A minor neck injury kept Hummels out of the Sweden game and Low will hope he is able to call on the centre-half’s services again soon after Jerome Boateng’s red card in Sochi.

“I had a big problem in training on Thursday,” Hummels said. “It has felt a lot better since then but the doctor said if I played too soon then something really bad could happen. So the doc’ said I had to accept it even though that was tough to do.”