Manuel Neuer played as a fifth defender against Algeria (Picture: AP)

Germany may have progressed to the last eight of the World Cup with a 2-0 extra time victory over Algeria, but it could have been a very different story if not for goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

The Bayern Munich stopper acted more as a fifth defender in last night’s round of 16 clash, in which the African side exposed the German’s defence time and again.

But Neuer was on hand to sweep up the danger outside his penalty box – and his display makes for a pretty impressive heat map.

The image shows just how frequently the stopper came rushing out of his area to deal with the danger throughout the 120 minutes, while his touch map is from the first-half alone.




Here it is, the most talked about heat map in history. Manuel Neuer. #GER pic.twitter.com/6cHthWZU2E — Squawka Football (@Squawka) June 30, 2014

Amazing! Here is goalkeeper Manuel Neuer's first-half touch map… pic.twitter.com/coqRaNiMRI — BetVictor (@BetVictor) June 30, 2014

36% of Manuel Neuer’s touches against #ALG in the #WorldCup Round of 16 game were outside the box pic.twitter.com/sobc8fJ5Vs — Castrol (@Castrol) July 1, 2014

And according to statistics, 36 per cent of Neuer’s touches came outside of his 18-yard box.

Who needs Per Mertesacker and co.?

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