Eighteen years after facing Brazil at the Stade de France they face another Ronaldo in a final there. Only this one will probably be a little more effective than the one who sleepwalked through that game. If France defend like they did against Germany tonight and Griezmann is as ruthless again, they have to be favourites against Portugal. But don’t write off Cristiano. He always turns up. He’ll do something even when he appears to be doing nothing. As for Germany. They need to get busy manufacturing strikers. Thanks for all your emails and tweets. Sorry I couldn’t publish them all.
Here’s Dominic Fifield’s match report:
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The Stade Velodrome is awash with the Tricolour. It’s everywhere, floating on a sea of noise. The French players approach the fans and join in a communal Iceland viking chant. And, you know what, after that gutsy performance it doesn’t quite seem as cheesy as you might think.
“So far this season Leicester have shown us that possession counts for little, Portugal showed that a team with a superstar and 10 others can triumph over a well-drilled team familiar with each other over a long period, after Iceland had seemed to prove the opposite earlier on. And now France are disproving the line about the importance of game management having been virtually shut out of the game for the majority of this match. I’m so disillusioned, I don’t know what to think anymore. Is football the new Hollywood where nobody knows anything?” wonders David Wall, perhaps wandering around lost in a maze.
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Full-time: Germany 0-2 France
Nicola Rizzoli blows his whistle three times and France are heading to Paris. Joy spreads around the Stade Velodrome as German bodies sink to the turf and France players hug one another after a brave, battling and potent performance.
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90+4 min: Loris makes a quite wonderful, acrobatic save from Müller and Kimmich, who jointly headed a Kroos cross towards the France keeper’s left-hand post. His rubber left arm comes from nowhere to claw it out. The jig is up for Germany. Only a matter of time.
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90+2 min: Cabaye is on for Griezmann, who is given a rousing standing ovation as he jogs off. He’s never played professionally in France. How odd. He’s feeling the love now, mind.
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90 min: France owe Umtiti a great big hug. He has been a rock in this second half. His interceptions when the score was 1-0 broke Germany. Kroos tries to pick a pass in to Gotze but this time Pogba stretches his muscles to cut out the danger.
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88 min: “Olé, olé, olé.” That is the sound of the world champions slipping out of this tournament. Where’s Miroslav Klose when you need him? France are patiently passing their way to Paris.
86 min: Griezmann pounces on a Germany mistake and scurries away from Howedes. He has Gignac to his right. Yeah, as if. He drives a low shot at goal that buries itself in Neuer’s midriff. He only had eyes for a hat-trick there. Rightly so.
85 min: Sissoko nods the ball away from Hector and races past him to clear the danger. Great defending. He’s had a fine second half. A great advert for the English Championship.
83 min: France break; Griezmann flashes a cross over to the back post where Pogba is galloping up in support but the ball is a yard ahead of him. Germany were in trouble if that was cutback just a tad.
@GreggBakowski it really is time that Low pulls his finger out here
— Sayings McSayings (@GreenNGoldMatt) July 7, 2016
82 min: Kroos delivers a wicked ball in from the right after France conceded a free-kick. Howedes rises above Matuidi and powers a header at goal but it’s six inches over. It’s not happening for Germany.
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80 min: So if Germany can’t win at possession football is ball-hogging officially dead? Is counter-attacking king?
79 min: “Amusing moment when Neuer goes to appeal (for something, anything, nothing) and then realises after about half a second it’s the most half hearted appeal ever and just collapses on the turf in defeat,” writes Jamie Fox. “I don’t think that goal happens at 0-0, though. They are trying to play themselves out of defence and taking a risk because they are 1 down.”
77 min: Sané is on for Schweinsteiger and almost scores with his first touch. After a melée is the French area the ball arrives in front of his disbelieving eyes and he stretches and prods just wide. In fact, it was deflected. Corner for Germany. The ball floats in and is cleared to Howedes, who wallops the ball towards Italy. Oh dear. Oh Germany.
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76 min: Giroud is off and Gignac is on. Griezmann is on six goals for this tournament now. That golden boot is winking at him.
75 min: Germany win a free-kick 25 yards out. Müller and Ozil run over it and Draxler curls in a right-footer that’s half a foot wide. Just before the France goal Kanté came on for Payet. So, in defensive terms, this is 12 versus 11. Good luck Germany.
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74 min: Germany roar back, Kimmich curling a quite majestic 25-yarder up and over Loris and off the far post. This is a game all right. And a test of Germany’s attacking quality. Can they get back into this?
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Goal! Germany 0-2 France (Griezmann 72)
Marseille erupts! Bedlam! Pogba slips on his dancing shoes and has his Zidane moment, leading Kimmich on a merry two-step before flicking the ball past him on the left-hand side of the penalty area and then hanging a cross up that Neuer palms away nervously. Griezmann pounces on the loose ball and prods home from 12 yards. Paris is in sight.
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70 min: Kroos is dumped to the turf by a clumsy tackle from Sissoko. Kroos hangs a deep cross up to the back post but Kimmich is offside.
68 min: Kimmich drives a low cross in to the near post where Umtiti and Draxler collide, the ball pinging off theFrance defender and going out for a corner. Kroos whips the ball in but a free-kick is given for a shove on Koscielny. Can Germany find a way through?
67 min: Müller is levered off the ball in the France box and Les Bleus break. Payet picks up possession and skips inside a challenge before shaping to shoot. The crowd expects. Payet disappoints. His shot is dragged harmlessly wide.
66 min: Low sends Gotze sprinting on in place of Can. He’s going up top alongside Muller. Germany must go for it.
65 min: Bam! Payet gets a ball in the face. He’s down. Play is stopped. But he’s soon up again. This second half has been bitty. That will suit France.
62 min: Kroos shows some flashy footwork to wriggle through two France defenders on the left. He pings a pass into Ozil but the return ball is cut out by a wall of defenders. France have nine men back. But they are reversing rather dangerously. Don’t park the bus just yet.
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61 min: Boateng is sat on the bench with a towel on his head looking like the world has just disintegrated around him. France win a corner after some nice buildup play on the right. Griezmann knocks it deep to Koscielny, who jumps and heads just over Neuer’s goal. Neueur watched it all the way.
60 min: Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi replaces Boateng. Remember him Evertonians? Nope, didn’t think so.
58 min: Trouble for Germany. Boateng appears to have twanged a hamstring when pinging a lovely ball out towards Draxler. He’s helped off by the physios and looks utterly deflated. A real blow.
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56 min: “Good to see Giroud displaying the form that makes Arsenal fans thrilled to think of him leading their attack again, next season,” writs D Hindle. Kimmich fails to control a diagonal ball and France win back possession. Löw looks miffed. He’s not happy. He almost creased his tight sweater then.
54 min: Hector knocks an inswinging cross towards the back post but Umtiki leaps highest and clears once more. A moment before that Can went stomping through midfield and then fell to the ground as though fouled. In fact his huge frame just slipped over and he admits as much. When he gets going he takes some stopping. He’s 2016’s Jan Molby.
53 min: This is a mirror image of the start of the first half. France giving it a go and then Germany winning the ball and keeping it with aplomb. Kroos is starting to get the motor purring once more.
51 min: Ozil spins away from two markers on the edge of the box ever so gracefully and tries to thread a pass into Müller that Umtiti cuts out again. He’s having a couple of good minutes.
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50 min: Draxler is booked for a late challenge on Pogba. His legs connect with Pogba’s right ankle much like scissors would with a piece of card. Nasty that. Deserved yellow card. Germany yet to find that awesome possessional groove.
48 min: Umtiti makes a vital clearance as Draxler cuts inside and skidaddles away from his marker before dinking a ball towards Müller that Umtiti cuts out with a telescopic left leg.
47 min: Payet bends it in to the back post. Thankfully for Germany, Schweinsteiger’s arms are about 10 yards from the ball. Germany clear.
46 min: There have been no changes and France have started as they did in the first half, confidently. Pogba pings a ball into Giroud on the left. He’s in space but takes a clumsy touch and then wallops the ball at Boateng’s legs when he should have done much, much better. Corner for France …
Peep!
45 min: It’s the second half. Can France hold on to that lead? Or increase it?
Some more views on that penalty.
“Noted anti-German Michael Ballack is on the telly here in the States saying ‘the referee was absolutely right’ so....I agree with Ballack, that was not a natural position for the arm. But the goal-line official made the call, and there would not be one in every match” – Darren Malloy.
“Giving France a penalty was not the wrong decision. It was the right decision, just 34 years late” – Robin Hazlehurst.
“I often find that referees are almost waiting to give decisions for host nations. Is it just an illusion or is there any statistical basis to that? After South Korea 2002 and Brazil 2014, one does tend to get aversion to even 50-50 calls going the hosts’ way” – Krishnan Patel .
“Surprised people are so incensed about that call. In La Liga, penalties are routinely awarded off unintentional handballs. It is an international tournament, after all …” – Lauren Henry.
“I’ve seen the replay quite a few times now and from just about every angle possible and I have come to the same conclusion as the referee. Blatant hand ball. He’s gone leaping in there hand outstretched like Clark Kent and even makes a fist just before the point of impact. Michael Ballack agrees too” – Michael Day.
So around 60-40 in favour of a penalty in my inbox.
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Let’s talk tactics! Well, if we must. Surely bringing on Kanté to help bolster that France midfield is a blatantly obvious switch for Didier Deschamps to make now. He also needs to find a way of stopping Kimmich and Hector getting forwards, or at least get Payet and Sissoko to pay more than lip service to their defensive duties. A more conventional four in midfield would help, with Sissoko the man to make way. He needs to do something, because Germany probably won’t be rattled like most teams would be by conceding after a spell of utter possessional domination.
Honk!
@greggbakowski I thought Joachim Low had made it absolutely clear where one's hands should be in the football field
— gokul (@_gokul_k) July 7, 2016
Summary
Here’s one particular view on that France goal.
@GreggBakowski That wasn't just against the run of play; it may have been against the run of human evolution.
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) July 7, 2016
And another: “Totally inadvertent, but clear penalty: for the kids watching at home - keep your arms down,” finger-wags Sam Bailey, whistle in hand.
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Half-time: Germany 0-1 France
Well, well, well. Germany were in utter control from the 10th minute to the 43rd minute. I’m still not convinced thet most referees would give a penalty for Evra’s header on to Schweinsteiger’s arm. But that has made this an even more intriguing game. Can Germany turn all that possession into cold, hard, goals?
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Goal! Germany 0-1 France (Griezmann 45 pen)
Pandemonium in Marseille. No, France! The Atlético forward sends Neuer the wrong way and sidefoots into the Germany keeper’s right hand corner as cool as you like.
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Penalty to France!
45 min: France drive a corner into the box that Evra heads on to Schweinsteiger’s right arm. There was nothing the Germany captain could do about that. Everyone looks incredulous! He’s booked too. There was nothing he could do about that he was an inch away.
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45 min: Evra is booked for a clever foul on Kroos, who was off on a gallop.
43 min: And then Giroud is picked out after Boateng is jumps too far forwards to try to head a long ball clear. A rare Germany mistake. He’s clean through, 50 yards from goal, but his lack of pace means Howedes eats up the ground to him and makes a fine block as the Arsenal striker cocks his left foot. Giroud could have played in Griezmann to his right too. But, let’s just applaud Howedes’s wonderful tackle.
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41 min: Payet, Evra and Griezmann play a lovely bit of training ground football on the left to expose Kimmich. Two sharp passes release Griezmann but the little forward flashes the ball into the sidenetting.
39 min: Matuidi gives the ball away under very little pressure. Müller picks up possession, 40 yards from goal on the right, but he hasn’t got the pace to bear down on the French goal and ends up popping a low shot at goal from 20 yards that Loris saves down to his right. A faster player would have punished France there. Germany don’t really have one of those though.
38 min: “What would be the french for ‘Can we have our ball back please, mister’? Perhaps ‘pouvons-nous avoir notre balle s’il vous plait, monsieur’? Or should they be asking in German so their opponents can easily understand?” wonders David Wall.
37 min: Nope. It’s more catching practise for Neuer.
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35 min: Can bodycharges Griezmann to end a rare France attack. He’s booked and then squares up to the referee. Easy Emre. Yes, we know you’re The Big Man. This is in Payet territory again, perhaps 26 or 27 yards out. Oh, hang on. Pogba to take. Is this his Zidane moment?
34 min: Evra and Payet have left the door open on the left-hand side for France. Can, Ozil and Kimmich are wandering up into the space on that flank like happy ponies.
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32 min: This time Kimmich does whip an inswinging ball into the box from the left that causes all manner of consternation in the France box. Müller leaps and misses a header by an inch and then the ball bounces and Draxler just can’t get his feet in order to get a shot away, with Umtiti making himself enough of a nuisance. He finally clears.
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30 min: Schweinsteiger is playing the role of traffic controller quite wonderfully. He’s joining the dots and deciding which of this utterly dominant Germany midfield gets a touch on the ball. Kimmich finds some space on the left and clatters a cross into Evra. Germany win the ball back. Here we go again.
28 min: France try to counter with Griezmann but he sends the simplest of 10-yard passes to Payet whizzing out of play. Oh dear.
27 min: The one man who could win this ball back for France is on the bench.
25 min: This really is a proper game of football. Ozil has just clattered a volley at Umtiti from 20 yards out after some neat buildup play. And then Schweinsteiger sends a dipping effort 25 yards up and over the France defence and towards the far corner that Loris tips over the bar. It was saveable mind. But this is very nice on the eye. The corner is drifted in by Ozil and cleared by the suddenly very busy France defence.
24 min: … and curls it over the wall straight to Neuer.
23 min: But then Schweinsteiger takes a needle to all that pressure by bundling into Payet, 30 yards from goal (Payet-land you might call it). It’s a free-kick. Payet runs up …
21 min: Germany have assumed the role of boa-constrictor here, slowly squeezing the life out of France. The pressure is building.
19 min: Kroos bursts into the box after evading a nibble from Matuidi. He goes down after Pogba, clumsily, runs into him, causing Kroos to take a wild and mishit shot at goal. Germany want a penalty. They don’t get one. Nor do they get a free-kick, which is what it should have been given that it was just outside the box.
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17 min: Germany have taken France’s ball and they won’t give it them back. They are creating loads of neat triangles – Equilateral, Isosceles and Scalene – they’ve got the lot. And then they win a corner as Kroos ups the tempo and slams it off Sagna.
15 min: Pogba almost single-handedly tries to wrestle control of the game back for France by shrugging off Can and striding forwards all of 50 yards. He releases Payet on the left but the little bag of tricks tries to be too clever and gets his feet in a tangle as he attempts to bamboozle Kimmich with no luck.
14 min: Loris makes a wonderful stop down to his right from Can. The busy midfielder didn’t connect cleanly from 10 yards after a short cross in from the left, but it still took some athletic capability to keep it out. Can is a tremendously athletic unit. He doesn’t half get around considering his muscular physique. He’s made a sound start here.
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12 min: Can is sent hurtling down the right wing by a sharp pass from Kimmich. He looks up and pulls the ball back to Müller, but his stab at goal is neither close enough to goal to bother Loris, nor close enough to the inrushing midfielder, Kroos, I think to create a clear shot on goal. France are under the cosh a bit suddenly.
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11 min: Ozil has just stitched together a fine Germany move down the right with his usual insouciance. Kimmich’s eventual cross is blocked but Germany are right back in this now.
10 min: “If the pace of the game matches the speed the French national anthem was just played at, the winner will not need extra-time to be knackered for the final,” writes Ian Copestake. Erm, well it kind of has done so far.
9 min: Germany respond well, having their best spell of possession. They don’t threaten in any way but just holding on to the ball seems somewhat of a feat in this bear-pit of an atmosphere.
6 min: What a save by Neuer! And what a passage of play by Matuidi and Griezmann! The French holding player storms off down the left and plays two one-twos with Griezmann, working the angles quite brilliantly and releasing the little forward on the edge of the area to shift the ball with electric speed on to his right foot. He tries to place the ball into Neuer’s left corner but the big keeper stretches himself to gets a strong wrist on it. Can clears. That would have been some goal.
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5 min: What an atmosphere in Marseille! It’s deafening. And that’s on the telly. The French team are responding to the noise too. They’re confident on the ball and finding Greizmann with alarming regularity. Germany need to put a stop to that.
3 min: France win a corner on the left. Payet stands over it. But he plays it short and works an angle on the cross that brings it out towards the penalty area. Germany deal with it comfortably enough though.
Peep! We are off!
1 min: France, in their very nice blue kit, get this semi-final started. Griezmann puts the frighteners on Boateng with a tenacious bit of pressing after a long ball forwards from the back. The upshot is that Boateng tests Neuer’s chest control with an awkward backpass. It’s very well dealt with by the Germany keeper. Can then storms through midfield but gives the ball away. It’s a fast start all right.
The French team belt out a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise with a boisterous crowd accompanying them that bounces the joyous ditty around all four, um, curves of the wonderful stadium. That’s got the tingles going. If anthems won football matches France would be in the final already.
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Anthem time! First, it’s Das Deutschlandlied. Oh yes, that’s loud. Only Can looked unbothered by it all. And now …
Bastian Schweinsteiger is in the tunnel wearing a face that is all business. Who really thought Schweinsteiger would be captaining Germany against France in the semi-final here after the disappointing season he has had at Manchester United, combined with a long injury layoff? Perhaps only Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Hugo Loris heads up Les Bleus. Two incredibly goalkeepers on show tonight. Loris, particularly, has made some wonderful reaction saves on the way through to this semi-final. Anyway, out they come.
Charles Antaki agrees: “I’ve just seen (and quickly switched off) a stadium shot showing fans doing the Icelandic crescendo-grunting routine. That feels all wrong, like that time when someone tried to do the New Zealand haka. (They got properly laughed at for their pains.” I think that was some shameless Milan PR stunt. “There was something about the manic intensity of the Icelanders’ efforts, and the absolute celebration of solidarity in it, that gave them ownership of it for all time. Or should do, until someone nicks it and puts it in an advert for a chain of bookmakers.”
Oh just let that be Iceland’s thing will you?
The Germans and French fans doing the Iceland clap together, under official Uefa co-ordination.
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) July 7, 2016
“I agree with Jonathan Sills about the special treatment goalkeepers are give,” head-nods Justin Kavanagh. “Even in retirement! I heard that ‘Toni’ Schumacher is escorted through Paris airport whenever he lands there, allegedly for his own safety.”
“The pressure of this game seems tenfold from yesterday’s match,” writes the wonderfully-named Jimmy Pope. “I consistently find myself surprised by the German selector, but he seems to have a bit of magic on his side. The stars he leaves on the bench only to bring on Emre Can – what a bold move. Lowe seems to have a knack for inspiring young talent to rise to the occasion and I can’t wait to see if that is going to repeat itself tonight!”
“France’s little-and-large attack is pleasingly retro,” beams Kari Tulinius. “Having been in an era of false nines, fluid front threes and space navigators, there’s something satisfyingly simple about a big man paired with a small guy. That France mix that with intricate passing and incisive runs makes them extra easy on the eye. I’m not neutral, given that I lived in France as a kid, but France feels like a blossoming team finding exciting form while Germany is a great side drifting towards stodginess.” We’ll see Kari, although I expect Giroud will be up on his own with Payet, Griezmann and Sissoko behind him switching places furiously.
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If you’re a goalkeeper, Jonathan Sills is jabbing his finger at you! “Forgive my ignorance, but why is it that goalkeepers (not just Schumacher and Neuer) seem to get preferential treatment from referees? I recall Raphael Honigstein mentioning specific laws to protect goalkeepers in a Football Weekly podcast a while back, but why should they receive special treatment? They’re no more vulnerable than other players. In fact, you could argue that being able to use their hands already gives them an advantage. And surely any special rules don’t extend to head-high challenges with raised knees that would be deemed clear fouls were they attempted by outfield players?”
I suppose anyone Portuguese wants extra-time don’t they? Whoever wins this one tonight will effectively be playing with a Europa League-style turnaround on Sunday. And we know how nobody ever moans about that now do they?
I have a theory about Schweinsteiger. He is a footballing chameleon. One of those players whose level matches the team and players around him. He keeps things ticking over, both good and bad. Germany fans will hope he keeps he good stuff flowing this evening. And what a huge night it is for Can. Despite looking like a 37-year-old, he’s still only 22. This is by far the biggest game of his career to date. They’ll need him to keep his head. He does have a tendency to see the red mist from time to time.
Tonight's cast (in full)
Germany: Neuer, Kimmich, Boateng, Howedes, Hector, Can, Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Kroos, Draxler, Muller. Subs: Leno, Mustafi, Khedira, Schurrle, Podolski, Weigl, Tah, Gotze, Sane, Gomez, Ter Stegen.
France: Lloris, Sagna, Koscielny, Umtiti, Evra, Pogba, Matuidi, Sissoko, Griezmann, Payet, Giroud. Subs: Mandanda, Jallet, Rami, Kante, Cabaye, Gignac, Martial, Schneiderlin, Mangala, Digne, Coman, Costil.
Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)
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Team news! Schweinsteiger captains Germany!
Unsurprisingly, France name an unchanged side. I say unsurpisingly but perhaps Kanté could have come back in. Maybe this game won’t be as cagey as I thought.
La compo des Bleus pour cette demi-finale de l' #Euro2016! 👊 Croire en nous 👊 #FiersdetreBleus #FRAALL 🕘 21H pic.twitter.com/jcmNrK9PfW
— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance) July 7, 2016
Perhaps a little more surprisingly, Germany bring back Bastian Schweinsteiger – and he’ll captain Die Mannschaft too. Emre Can, who also starts, will help add some energy in there, as will Julian Draxler. But isn’t that a little risky? Germany may have won their last 12 games with him in the lineup but how fit is he really? We’ll see whether he really is the big-game player tonight.
#Can, @BSchweinsteiger & #Draxler come in for the unavailable @matshummels, @SamiKhedira & @Mario_Gomez. #GERFRA pic.twitter.com/dJKAm9MR34
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) July 7, 2016
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My memory of the 2014 World Cup final appears to be about as hazy as Kristoph Kramer’s, seeing as I completely forgot this when referencing Neuer’s ability, or lack of, to replicate Schumacher’s hostile jumping of 1982.
“He did get away with it. And the referee was Rizzoli!” yelps JR in Illinois.
“Big fan of Dortmund, gegenpressing and all. And boy do FC Bayern play good football,” begins Mats Anderson, who I’m guessing is German. “In the European Cups the Germans usually perform very well. Great times in front of my TV watching the Bundesliga too. I try to get to Hamburg to watch St Pauli at least once a season. Then there’s the national team. I just can’t get past the Schumacher assult with the purpose of causing grievous bodily harm. Particularly the sight of Harald ‘Toni’ Schumacher unperturbed just standing there waiting to take his goal-kick. Still makes me sick. The callousness of it. Incidentally, that ref never officiated in an international game. So: Vive la France!”
I can’t have an extended into tonight’s match without flagging up that piece of pure footballing filth that occurred back in 1982, when West Germany met France in the World Cup semi-final of 1982. It’s also known as the Schumacher-Battiston incident.
I can’t quite see Manuel Neuer pulling off that kind of stunt and getting away with it unpunished as Harald Schumacher did, despite the relative leniency of tonight’s Italian referee, Nicola Rizzoli. Poor Patrick Battiston. “To this day I have a cracked vertebra and broken teeth,” he said in the buildup to tonight’s game.
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Patrick Sullivan’s love affair with Cristiano Ronaldo shows no sign of petering out. “With little skin in this game, I have chosen to root for the side most likely to humiliate Him in a huge defeat in the final. Therefore, go Germany, or a nasty bout of botulism at Team Portugal’s hotel commissary.”
Preamble
Evening. And what an evening! The world champions versus the hosts. The two best teams at Euro 2016 colliding like red-hot planets in Marseille’s curvaceous Stade Vélodrome. If that doesn’t get you excited then you probably need medical assistance – or a good talking to at the very least. So there.
What have France got going for them? Well, they usually make the final when they are hosts of a major tournament. So that’s helpful. But history aside, they have got all the attributes; they are physical, tidy in possession, potent and they can change up a gear to counterattack effectively if needed too. They also have a fully fit squad and forwards who are in form. Useful. Their main weak point is that they have just been a bit, well, patchy. They have responded well to pressure, mind, and they’ll have a heap load of that on them in Marseille this evening. Perhaps they will put all the pieces together in one match over 90 minutes in a way they haven’t managed so far at these Euros. They’ll need to. Germany are a massive step up in class from any other team they have faced.
And while we’re on the subject of pressure, it’s hard not to spare a thought for Paul Pogba, who is being thrust forward as the French saviour, 2016’s Zinedine Zidane, the man who will drive Didier Deschamps’ team on to glory in the Stade de France. He’s still only 23. On top of that not a day goes by that he isn’t being flogged to one team or another for world-record money in the tabloids. Mind you, he is fond of a Zidane roulette. But give the kid a break. If this France side fails or succeeds it will be down to the team not a young kid from Lagny-sur-Marne on the outskirts of Paris.
Germany have beaten France in their past three competitive meetings, most recently in the 2014 World Cup quarter-final, when France struggled to find any kind of rhythm and Germany settled a disappointing game with a Mats Hummels header. He’s suspended this evening so they’ll need to find somebody else to provide a decisive touch. It won’t be Mario Gomez, either, he’s pulled his hamstring, leaving Joachim Löw bereft of out-and-out centre-forwards. If this was a World Cup, he’d be fine, because Thomas Müller scores goals for fun in that competition. But this is a Euros and he’s still to break his duck over 10 championship games. Tonight would be a fine time for him to do just that. Germany’s most (in)famous win over France was in the 1982 World Cup semi-final. You can read more on that here, with this handy retro minute-by-minute report. Similar drama tonight would be most welcome. But, I expect this game to be a cagier affair. There’ll be no German evisceration of the hosts such as the humiliation of Brazil in 2014.
Because we all know that possession is Germany’s key weapon these days. They’re Spain with muscles – and more than one plan. They have the best ball-hogging stats of any team in this tournament and despite their lack of a goalscorer, their patient play and stinginess at the back will provide them with the platform on which a win can be built. If they can find someone, anyone, to turn up in front of goal that is.
Keep an eye on set-pieces this evening. Dmitri Payet and Toni Kroos both have wicked deliveries from wide areas and corners (yes they take good corners. How very quaint). France, I’d argue, are perhaps the most threatening aerially. It could be that one of these two midfielders swings the match the way of their team by the quality and consistency of their dead-balls. I’ll be back with the team news shortly. Get in touch on the email address above. Or Twitter.
My prediction: Germany 1-2 France
Kick-off: 9pm local time, 8pm BST.
And something to read while you wait:
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