#5 Jerome Boateng
Trending
In Germany’s final group game against Northern Ireland, Germany defender Jerome Boateng limped off with a calf injury and manager Low will be sweating on the Bayern man’s fitness ahead of this crucial clash. The initial signs have been encouraging though, as Boateng joined his team-mates in a training season on the eve of the match.
Boateng has been crucial for the German defence which is yet to concede a goal in this tournament despite it being a relatively young and inexperienced back-four. He has renewed his World Cup winning partnership with Mats Hummels at the heart of the German’s central defence.
Boateng set the tone with a brilliant athletic clearance off the line in the opener against Ukraine and has only gotten better from there on, putting in some tough shifts and crucial interventions to rescue his team. Who can forget his absolutely stunning crunching tackle on Lewandowski to deny him an important one-on-one chance? Not any time soon.
They will need the defensive prowess which a fit and fighting Boateng adds to the team, if they hope not to replicate the shambolic performance that led to the 3-1 humbling at home at the hands of the Slovaks.
