Germany vs Italy - How would the Germans shape up

Germany:The defining team of EURO 2012

The second semi-final of the EURO 2012 will see Germany taking on Italy in Warsaw on Thursday, 28th June. Both teams have exhibited different styles of play and have had fairly contrasting run-in’s in their path to the semis. While Germany have displayed a brand of attacking football, establishing themselves as the most enterprising and exciting team in the tournament and winning all their matches, the Italians have stuck to their philosophy of playing a compact and simple game, defending with all their might and trying to hit other teams on the break. With two contrasting football ideologies being pitted against each other, the stage is set for an enthralling contest.

Germany qualified for the semi-finals of EURO 2012, by dismantling a spirited Greek side by 4-2. The style and flair exhibited by the Germans in this match was too much for their Greek counterparts, who were severely out-played and outclassed by the exorbitant attacking display, put up by the Germans.

Italy, on the other hand, had to go through a rather nerve-wrecking affair beating England on penalties (4-2), after both sides failed to score in the 120 minutes of football played. This rather industrious effort put up by the Italian side would not necessarily worry the Germans much but under-estimating the tactically brilliant Italian squad is something that Joachim Loew and his players should be extremely wary of.

Germany has the most skilled bench in the entire tournament, giving Joachim Loew selection head-aches that coaches all over the footballing world would dream to have. Loew has a lot of faith in the talent and quality of his bench players, which was apparent when he chose to bench his entire forward line of Gomez, Podolski and Muller, and brought on Reus, Klose and Schurrle as their replacements. Considering the way Germany had been playing and the form of Gomez in front of goal, many considered it as a huge gamble, as most coaches would not have dared to tinker with their starting line up.

Schweinsteiger: The engine running Germany’s mid-field

However, the German forward line vindicated their coach’s utter faith in their abilities as they put up a brilliant performance and were a constant menace to the Greek back-line. Klose and Reus in particular, were at their enterprising best, making a lot of destructive plays, cleverly linking up with Ozil and being the major driving force behind most of the German attacks.

However, Loew would be worried about the fitness and form of Scweinsteiger,who was clearly struggling in the match against Greece. Schweinsteiger is the driving force of the German mid-field and their most important player – someone who cleverly distributes the ball, is a brilliant reader of the game, and most importantly is a leader on the pitch. So, a fit Schweinsteiger is vital for Germany who will be faced up against extremely potent mid-field opponents in Pirlo, De Rossi and Marchisio.

Another area of concern for Loew would be his right-back Boateng, who had a pretty ordinary outing against Greece and would be low on confidence. His inexperience coupled with the big-game pressure could cost Germany dear, and Loew always has the option to switching him with Lars Bender. Bender in his only match against Denmark was exceptional as a right-back making plenty of marauding runs down the flanks, and scoring the winner. However, Bender is a mid-fielder by nature, and playing him as Right-back over the conventional Boateng would be a huge gamble, but a gamble Loew can afford to take considering that Italy have a pretty narrow mid-field, and lack any conventional winger. However, Loew hasn’t tinkered much with his defense and it looks most probable that Boateng will start and Bender would keep his place on the bench and maybe called upon later to add more threat from the right-back position.

Thus Germany should go with their normal formation of 4-2-1-3, with Lahm, Badstuber, Hummels and Boateng making the back four.

The midfield duo of Khedira and Scweinsteiger would be expected to continue their commanding performance and would be expected to put in another great shift. The performance of these two players will be vital as they would have to work very hard to ensure that the Italians don’t get too much time and space on the ball in mid-field, where Pirlo and De Rossi could dictate the pace and flow of the game easily.

The Italians would like to slow down the pace of the game, and hit the Germans on the break or through the creative talents of Pirlo and his measured through-balls and passes. The German mid-fielders would have to enforce themselves on the game, trying to play at a faster tempo and link up effectively with Ozil and the three forwards, while at the same time prevent Pirlo and De Rossi from having much of an impact.

Ozil: The best in the world at the trequartista poistion

Ozil would be the most important player for the Germans, who in his role as the trequartista, would need to display his full range of passing and play-making skills and ensure that he releases the ball quickly and is spot-on with his decision making. He must also try to find space and not be reluctant to shoot if the opportunity presents itself. Ozil was exceptional in the match against Greece and thus would be expected to carry on in the same vein. Ozil, however, will be pitted against De Rossi in the Italian mid-field, and playing against the Italian master would not be easy for him. He would need to play his best football to enforce his will over De Rossi.

In attack, Loew would be ill-advised against bringing back Gomez for the enterprising and experienced Klose. Klose with his ability to make intelligent runs and greater mobility takes up better positions, links up well with Ozil and the wingers, and would be a greater attacking threat than Gomez, who is more of an industrious striker. Klose with his ability to read the defense and big-game experience, would be able to draw out the defense opening up space for Ozil and the wingers to exploit and would be a greater menace to the seasoned Italian defensive duo of Barzagli and Chiellini (if he plays). Klose also knows that this is most probably the last major championship of his career and would be highly motivated to finish on a high, considering he is only 4 goals behind Gerd Muller for the all-time German goal-scoring record.

Loew should also reward Reus with another start on the right-wing after his brilliant performance against Greece. Reus provided a lot of pace, makes a lot of intelligent runs and plays very clever one-two’s, linking up brilliantly with Ozil and Klose. However, Podolski should expect to be given a recall adding some more experience in the vital match.

Muller and Podolski were not able to impress much in attack during the group stages, as Loew had given them the responsibility to track back on defense and help out their full-backs against wingers of the quality of Nani, Ronaldo and Robben. This did influence their attacking threat, but against a compact and narrow mid-field where most of the width will be provided by the Italian full-backs Abate and Balzaretti, Podolski could have greater freedom and look to get into better attacking positions and have a greater influence over the game.

The Germans would most probably line up like this:-

Germany have an advantage over Italy as they played their quarter-final match on Friday, and have 6 days to rest and reinvigorate themselves, nurse some niggling injuries and have greater time to prepare themselves mentally for the big-game on Thursday. Italy, on the other hand, had to play 120 minutes against England and have only 3 days to rest and recuperate. This added rest would definitely give the German’s an edge.

The match is being billed as an opportunity for the German’s to extract some revenge for the last time they faced Italy in a competitive match, when strikes from Fabio Grosso and Del Piero stopped their juggernaut in the semis of the World Cup in 2006, on their home soil. The German team then was very young and showed a lot of promise, but was no match for the seasoned and experienced Italian stars like Del Piero, Totti and Cannavaro. Lahm, Podolski and Schweinsteiger were a part of the young German squad that had to go through that heart-breaking encounter. Six years from then, the promise displayed by these players had been realized and these players playing at their peak now would love nothing more than to avenge the loss and take their nation to the finals of EURO 2012.