FIFA World Cup 2014: Tactical Analysis - France 0-1 Germany

Mats Hummels scores his goal past Hugo Lloris

In the only all European quarterfinal, France hoped to topple the tournament favourites Germany. Both the squads, coming through some not so great performances in the previous round were bound to be shuffled.

Germany’s tactical set-up

Germany radically changed their line up as they gave a start to Miroslav Klose, and lost the façade of the interchangeable front three for once in the tournament and went with a genuine number 9 rather than an artsy false nine.

This meant that Gotze, who has been criticized through out the tournament, was benched, leaving Muller to play wide right; a role which he was so successful in in the last World Cup, and has subsequently made his own, since then at his club, Bayern Munich. As a wide attacker, he likes to join the lone striker time and again. Ozil, who hasn’t been in the good books of the pundits throughout the tournament, was still seen as an viable option by Joachim Low, playing wide left, trying to move in and out, looking for spaces to influence the game.

The changes were also prevalent at the back, with Phillip Lahm playing right back for the first time in the World Cup after the critics were left questioning Germany’s centre back laden defense against Algeria. This meant that Mertesacker bowed out and gave way to the fully fit Mats Hummels and Boateng who moved to centre back to partner him. Lahm’s position in midfield was taken by Khedira who completed the midfield trio with Schweinsteiger and Kroos, all 3 starting together for the first time in the tournament.

The formation was in more than one way redolent of last World Cup’s line up for Germany. Klose, playing the lone striker, Ozil and Muller behind him and a midfield marshalled by Schweinsteiger and Khedira.

France’s tactical set-up

France sported some anticipated changes with Sakho coming back from injury to replace Koscielny at the back, while Giroud who failed to fire last time round against Nigeria was dropped in favour of Antoine Griezmann. Griezmann,who had been responsible for lifting the French against Nigeria was brought in to bring much more fluidity, dynamism and speed.Meanwhile the usual supects played their part respectively, Valbuena playing in pockets and Pogba and Matuidi managing the French midfield engine.

On paper, this was a battle of two of the most star studded midfields . Pogba and Matuidi playing ahead of deep lying creator, Yohan Cabaye, were up against the clinical trio of Toni Kroos, at the top of the triangle furthest of the three, Sami Khedira going box to box, and Schweinsteiger playing the deepest of the three.

France’s tactical set-up

Tactical analysis – How did the game pan out

Germany dominated the initial proceedings with their passing and movement, and soon were rewarded from a set piece as Hummels’ deft header left Lloris with no chance what so ever. The goal was some what similar to Fellaini’s equalizer against Algeria in the tournament earlier, albeit this being a dead ball situation.

France on the other were stifled in the middle of the park, attacking sideways, mostly through the right side or looking for Griezmann to make a clever run behind the centre backs,acting as a target for long balls from midfield, trying to break the offside trap as was done by the Algerians in the previous round. Griezmann was successful in the ploy on two occasions in the first half as well, but was thwarted by defenders as he tried to feed Benzema once and saw Benzema unable to score from close range after some good work by Neuer the other time.

Meanwhile, Germany maintained their aggression, interplaying near the box, trying to unsettle the French back four. The first half majorly belonged to the Germans who by the virtue of Hummels’ goal were ahead.

The most worrying sign of the first half for France was the lack of participation of Paul Pogba. Pogba, who was pretty much the driving force in the Round of 16 match against Nigeria, runnng at people with the ball, making things happen, never was in the game in the first half. Compounded by Evra hardly offering any help on the left side in an attacking sense. Much of the interplay between Valbuena and Debuchy was promising, but that was as far as it went.

The second half, from the offing, was a much open affair. Valbuena and Griezmann were much more involved in the attacks and French looked to press and close the German team better. Soon as the game started stretching both teams had moments on the counter, but no one could add to the score, with Germany still looking the better team, and resisting whatever the French offered, which was to be fair not enough to topple a team like Germany.

The Cabayes’, the Pogbas’ and Matuidis’ though tried jostling, were unable to match their German counter parts. Particularly Cabaye, who as a deep lying creator, was pretty much dismal except on occasion when he targeted Griezmann with the long balls, was also absent on various counters defensively, whereas his counterpart Schweinsteiger was almost the antithesis of him, breaking play, defending in his box, weeding out most of the threat that the French offered.

The substitutions never really came into the game in case of France, with Deschamps waiting till around the 70th minute mark to make his first change, and that too, to take off the centre back Sakho who went off holding his leg for the third time in this tournament. The attacking changes came in the last 10-15 minutes, and were hardly effective. There was never really any urgency for the French.

To sum it up, the German lean mean, efficient machine prevailed over a French team that for all its enterprise earlier in the tournament lack in motivation and hunger.