On to a very interesting second leg!
Walking into the Nations League Viertelfinale as the underdogs, there weren’t too many expectations on Germany. Die Mannschaft were set to face Italy at the San Siro, among whom, the latter held a better track record. However, what ensued was a game of two halves where the Germans, though thoroughly outclassed in the first half, rose to the occasion in the second half and walk home with a deserved 2-1 win.
Here are our observations from this game.
Possession Numbers are meaningless and here’s why
The first half saw Germany holding a majority of the possession with around 60%, yet that was the worst half. They were losing the ball to an aggressive and undeterred Italy who were keen on dispossessing them at the earliest. The counter attacks orchestrated by Nicolo Barella were far superior to what the Germans were doing. Granted, the Italians were facilitated in their pursuits by the German defense who made more mistakes than they were capable of fixing.
A sharp contrast was the second half. The Germans, although with near-level possession numbers, simply did more with the ball. There were more chances created and they were more keen on scoring and handling the game. The Germans finally gave Gianluigi Donnarumma some work as he made multiple critical saves. The patience and care taken in buildup by the Germans in the second half was commendable. They no longer looked keen on just hogging the ball. This paid off in two exceptional goals. Ergo, if you went simply off possession numbers, this game would make no sense.
Attack matters
The attackers in the first half were centre-forward Jonathan Burkardt, and Nadiem Amiri and Leroy Sane on the wings and Jamal Musiala at the attacking midfield. Naturally, the formations weren’t set in stone as the players constantly deviated from these positions.
The first half, as stated earlier, was not a very good time for the Germans. The attack was isolated from the rest of the team by a ruthless Italian midfield-defense. The likes of Amiri and Burkardt had no impact whatsoever, and they seemed clueless and perplexed for the most part. Musiala was heavily marked by at least two blue shirts at any given point in time and despite his valiant efforts to break through, he simply couldn’t. Sane, despite having the quality to handle a team like Italy, made barely any strides.
The second half saw manager Julian Naglesmann waste no time in removing the underperformers, as Burkardt was subbed off for Tim Kleindienst and the defense saw the substitution of a hapless David Raum for Nico Schlotterbeck. Kleindienst was quick to breathe life into the game as the Gladbach man scored on his very first touch. This was the result of a carefully thought out and well orchestrated piece of attacking and a fantastic cross in by Joshua Kimmich. The second half further saw the entry of Jamie Leweling for Amiri and Karim Adeyemi for Sane, both of whom made a fair share of attempts but not of any real significance.
On the topic of set pieces, it is noteworthy that akin to Bayern Munich, Germany seemed more keen on winning corners than actually using them productively.
(Interesting point is that Italy were just as bad in set pieces — utterly disorganised and uncoordinated but that’s besides the point.)
Every set piece taken by either Joshua Kimmich or David Raum was simply wasted despite having all the personnel to score. Germany had the fortune of free kick positions that were right outside the box, but they blew it.
All critiques aside, the second goal did end up from a corner kick. This was the result of a picture-perfect corner in by Kimmich, and with a little help from Leon Goretzka, the ball was netted in. This corner alone is perhaps enough to atone for the several other sloppy set pieces.
All in all, the second half featured much better personnel who deserve to feature in future games in the starting XI.
The resurgence of Leon Goretzka
Goretzka is a subject of criticism wherever he goes. After receiving a surprising call back to the National Team, all eyes were on the midfielder. The fans (including the author) swarmed around him like eagles waiting to tear him to shreds. However, he might have proven all wrong. Against Italy, Goretzka was a man reborn — clinical, focused and barring a few errors (including a diabolical miss in the 68th minute), he was the better man in the midfield as compared to Pascal Gross. If one ignores his several mistakes from the first 20 minutes, this was a really good game for him.
Some miscellaneous pointers
- The defense desperately needs more work. Antonio Rudiger and later Nico Schlotterbeck were the only players who knew what they were doing. Jonathan Tah and David Raum looked miserable.
- Oliver Baumann and his Superman-esque saves saved Germany from what could’ve been a much worse outcome.
- Germany desperately miss the likes of Niclas Fullkrug and Florian Wirtz in attack.
- Italy were happy to play dirty and yet did not receive as many fouls. Interesting.
- Had this game gone Italy’s way Nicolo Barella would’ve been MOTM. This is something for Bayern to note as they head into the Quarterfinals of the Champions League against Inter Milan.
