Match Date: 28 June 2012

Pre-Match

The first thing that is noteworthy is the inclusion of Toni Kroos and even that shouldn’t be that surprising because Germany have so much talent to choose from and he is a good player, but he had only played 20 minutes in the tournament prior to this match, with the most being 9 minutes against Netherlands. That is an issue because, as we’ve seen throughout the tournament, Joachim Löw doesn’t have a best eleven or one that he has allowed to really gel. The second issue is that Löw deployed him on the right hand side, where he only played once for Bayern Munich this season, and as we’ll see that didn’t help Germany. Italy also had personnel changes, notably Maggio being out through suspension and those made Prandelli have to scrap any plans to go back to a 3-5-2, which would have helped Italy, and play a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield like they did against England.

1st Half

Within the first minute, you could see that Kroos was going to tuck in as much as possible and Daniele De Rossi saw this and was trying to play wider to get into that space, until the game settled down and he moved into central midfield more and more. The first real chance for either team fell to the feet of arguably the best player of the tournament thus far, Mats Hummels, off a corner. He clearly wasn’t expecting it to fall to his feet and it was a bit stuck under his foot as he shot, but it would have been a goal had Pirlo not been on the line. Within ten minutes, Italy became very narrow in the midfield which should have helped Germany a bit more as there full backs are a bit better getting forward and could exploit the wide areas, but instead it was Italy who found glory from the wide areas as Chiellini found himself in some space, played the ball to Cassano, who put a great ball into the box for Balotelli to head home. It has to be said that it was rather poor defending from Badstuber as Balotelli was able to get all the way around him and then finish. From here, Lahm had a very good opportunity that he put just got the bar after good combination play with Kroos who had now moved into the center and seemed to stay there, allowing Boateng to use the whole right flank and really make Özil get wide more often. Italy added their second on a quick counter from a German corner. Montolivo found himself with space on the left side of the pitch, just inside his own half and played a great ball to Balotelli between Lahm and Badstuber. Balotelli stroked it home to give the Italians a 2-0 advantage with under ten minutes left in the first half.

2nd Half

Löw had to make changes and he did, bringing on Reus and Klose for Podolski and Gómez, both who had rather poor performances. It wasn’t very long until Reus had the chance to make an impact, but he didn’t make his chance count, having his left-footed shot saved at the near post. Germany’s next best chance came at 56’ and fell to Klose and he too had a chance to make a quick impact after he met a good through ball, but he took too long to shoot and Bonucci recovered well too only concede a corner. Germany definitely began to get more and more chances. Reus had a free kick decently saved by Buffon and created a few half chances until the 92nd minute when Özil converted a penalty to give the Italians a nervy two minutes. Italy had a few decent breaks before Germany got their goal to really put the game out of reach, but failed to do so, but really the second half was mostly Germany trying to keep the ball and find a way through, with Italy sitting back and breaking when they could.

What Italy Did Right

I said in my preview that if Italy were going to beat Germany, the most important thing that they had to do, the thing that they didn’t do well enough in the England match, including Balotelli, was to make the most of their chances and put them away and early if possible. In the England game, Balotelli had ten total shots and failed to score, against Germany, he had 3 total shots and 2 goals, with the third one not too far away either. Quite the turn around and a great conversion rate, something he’ll again if he is to have the same impact against Spain. Italy also made it hard for Germany to play in the midfield and though Germany still had 56% possession, they didn’t move the ball as well as they usually did and you have to credit the Italians for breaking up their rhythm and play at times. If they are to beat Spain, they need to do this as well; not concede the midfield and hope Pirlo has another game like he had against England and again today.

What Germany Did Wrong

Did all the changes to Germany’s starting 11 throughout the tournament have a big impact on their ability to gel? I think a mistake was made when Kroos was included in the starting line-up over someone like Reus because Kroos was always going to tuck in and this made Özil have to play wider than he would have liked. Özil was still Germany’s most influential player today, but he could have been better had he had a creative alternative to Boateng to play the ball to on the outside right. Both assists for Italy came from the right side; would Reus had tracked Chiellini back on the first? The second one was a break, but if Montolivo got there, could a more natural wide player like Reus have been there as well? Their second mistake, which I just touched upon, was their lack of wide play. Italy had the personnel that was always going to see their midfield be very narrow and this showed very early on in the game. Lahm and Boateng are much more suited to get forward than either Chiellini, who mostly plays in the center, and Balzaretti, who usually plays on the left, so Germany should have really looked to use the wide areas a bit more, to exploit Italy’s makeshift outside backs, but instead they continually tried to put everything through the middle. Even when going through the middle, other than Khedira and Özil, they looked to lack real urgency. Schweinsteiger, who didn’t play particularly well for the second straight game, was too content playing his full backs square. One last note, in defense of the the best defender in the tournament and one of the best overall players, Mats Hummels may have not his best game against Cassano, but played well against Balotelli when the two went head to head. Mehmet Scholl was very critical of Hummels saying his mistakes cost the Germans. I can agree with him that Cassano shouldn’t have been able to get a cross in for Balotelli’s goal, but Badstuber should have easily headed that out. Hummels also wasn’t either of the two defenders that got caught out for the second goal either. Maybe Scholl meant to say Badstuber had a poor game, because he did more so than Hummels.

Conclusion

In the end, Germany is still a better team and though they weren’t at their best today, they still had opportunities that could have seen them take an early lead and change the game completely. Balotelli’s finishing really did it for Italy, after two defensive lapses from an otherwise solid back four, he was finally able to take advantage of his chances. It will be hard to see Italy playing like they did today against Spain and coming away with a victory, because Spain are still a better team when it comes to just retaining possession, but they had a good exercise today with Germany who keep possession very well, but penetrate a bit better than Spain.