Day 5:-

Germany vs. Portugal:-





What was supposed to be an epic European clash quickly turned into a one-sided German domination of a game.

Coach Joachim Löw ended up opting for a “false nine” formation with the team built around Mesut Özil’s creativity and dynamism in front of goal.

The game began with Germany not being able to hold onto possession for a proper amount of time; as Portugal were quickly pressing them to regain the ball and launch their own attacks.

The first signs of Portugal’s expected problems at the back dealing with Germany’s pace were soon displayed when Götze ran through the Portuguese defense only to be brought down by João Pereira for a penalty.

The goal gave Germany confidence and they went on to regain more control of the game, while Portugal were facing difficulties offensively as they were a tad impatient with their passing forward.

The Germans were displaying superior technical skills with Özil pulling defenders away from their central zones for other midfielders to run through the now-open spaces. Portugal were, meanwhile, chasing shadows mostly!

A classic set-piece goal due to some woeful defending and marking from Portugal only made things go from bad to worse for coach Paulo Bento's team from then on.

Pepe’s self-dismissal capped a horrible day for Portugal at the back and the Germans wasted no time in taking advantage of that; with Özil playing Lahm out wide, whose inwards cross was horribly cleared by Bruno Alves for Thomas Müller to capitalize and make it 3 to the good.

Portugal’s terrible defending let them down after a somewhat bright start and the Germans were on a far better technical level in a first half of extremely high tempo.

The second half saw Germany impose even more control on the match, neither rushing their play nor applying too much pressure on Portugal; while the Portuguese weren’t offering anything of notice in attack as they seemed out of ideas.

The game slowly “died” as Portugal pretty much threw in the towel and the Germans were content with passing the ball around and waiting to exploit spaces in Portugal’s defensive areas.

Germany outplayed Portugal further and added a fourth goal courtesy of an effective attack led by a wonderful pass from Höwedes from the half-line to André Schürrle on the right and the rest you know.

Germany were vastly superior both technically and tactically; however, their defense seemed error-prone at times and Coach Löw shouldn’t be too flattered with the score-line in terms of the effectiveness of the system he had deployed (only 2 goals came from open-play, both of which were due to bad defending on the other team’s behalf!).

Portugal played well up until the penalty; but they then significantly reduced their intensity going forward and were very poor in defense! Also, the less said about Ronaldo’s performance the better. Serious injuries to two key players, Pepe’s suspension and a Ronaldo who is clearly not even at 50% all raise BIG questions regarding Portugal’s hope of making it through to the next round.

Man of the match: Thomas Müller: A true “fox in the box” for the Germans, great classic center-forward play and a relentless work-rate!

Day 4:-

Argentina vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina:-





Looking to kick-start their WC campaign with a “bright” result, the Argentinians succumbed to the pre-match pressure and only just managed to scrape a win!

The first shock of the match was delivered even before it started when both coaches opted for quite unorthodox formations; with Coach Alejandro Sabella going for an unnecessary 3-5-2/5-3-2 variation, while Coach Safet Sušić chose a less-attacking 4-3-3/4-5-1 set-up.

Bosnia’s game plan was quickly disrupted by that rather unforetunate own goal; however, they rapidly bounced-back and recovered from that early disappointment by counter-pressing Argentina back into their own half and imposing themselves on the game.

They were quite literally “taking the game” to the Argentinians; constantly looking to play their attacks through with the aid of long balls behind Argentina’s 3-man defensive line and forcing them to play on the counter.

Argentina started to regain more control of the game with their ball possession and passing; with Messi dropping deep into his own half to collect the ball and dictate play from the center of the park. Bosnia, on the other hand, were having difficulties opening-up play in attack whenever they got hold of the ball and went forward.

The rest of the 1st half saw Argentina enjoying more and more possession but not creating anything worth of notice in attack; while Bosnia were lacking courage offensively.

It was a rather ineffective performance from Argentina in front of goal, lacking width and relying too much on Messi tracking back to initiate their attacks. Bosnia couldn’t find the right rhythm with their passing and Džeko was needing another force alongside him; however, they were unlucky to end the half without AT LEAST a draw.

The beginning of the second half saw coach Sabella revert to the normal, and more logical, approach by bringing on Gago and Higuaín to switch to a 4-3-3/4-4-2 formation and offer Argentina more options in attack and midfield.

It took a while for Argentina to offer proper chances up-front and a quick combination of passing between Messi and Higuaín saw the Barcelona star score one of his more classic goals amidst some chaotic Bosnian defending.

The goal seemed to draw all of Bosnia’s remaining energy levels; as they did not look ready to offer anything anymore in the way of real threats to Argentina’s goal.

A defensive lapse from Federico Fernández saw Lulić play substitute Ibišević (should have come on WAY earlier!) through, who slotted the ball between Romero’s legs to ensure a nervy finish to the match.

It was a rather disappointing display of football from Argentina in the 1st half; but they upped the tempo and quality of their play in the second and I do not think that coach Sabella will have MANY positives to draw from such a performance. All in all, Bosnia were quite unlucky to lose and the lack of chemistry between their players cost them the match in the end.

Man of the match: Lionel Messi: Good all-round performance as he was involved in most of Argentina’s attacks.