Two of the European heavy weights will be playing against each other for the quarter final tie in the 2014 World Cup with three-time champions Germany taking on 1998 world cup winners France in the first quarter final of the tournament. Here is the short match preview and line-ups predictions:
The two sides have proud traditions when it comes to the knockout rounds of the World Cup.
These two teams have played against each other 25 times before. France has won 11, Germany 8, and 6 of the matches have ended in a draw. There were 83 goals scored in total. France scored 41 of those and Germany 42.
The French have an impressive record of their own to boast of. On the last five occasions that they have reached the knockout phase (Sweden 1958, Spain 1982, Mexico 1986, France 1998 and Germany 2006), Les Bleus have always made it to the semi-finals at least.
The French and German sides were given tough tasks against the last African ambassadors in the World Cup (Nigeria and Algeria), but both managed to secure a place in the quarter final. Les Bleus grabbed a hard-fought 2-0 win over Nigeria in Brasilia.
Germany showed some defensive weaknesses against Algeria, that should be fixed before the quarter final clash against Les Bleus, as the fast French forwards Valbuena and Griezmann will surely expose the sluggish defensive line of the Germans.
Offensively, the Germans will rely on Muller and Klose to score. With 14 goals at three previous World Cup finals, the 35-year-old Klose is just one short of Brazil striker Ronaldo’s record of 15 for the all-time goal-scorer. Thomas Muller wants to score so he can reclaim the Golden Boot (he won it in 2010 World Cup).
The Germans will surely make some changes on their defensive line in order to stop the pacey run of the French. On the offence, the German forwards can win this just for the sake of the records they are chasing.
Germans do tend to up their game a notch in the bigger games and they can call upon “impact players” like Andrea Schurrle and Klose which shows the depth of the squad while France have quality youngsters in their rank most notably Paul Pogba, who is proving to be a real handful.
Having said that the ties seems to favour Germany just because they have players who has experience in big games. A safe prediction is to conclude on a narrow win for Germany.
Looking at things from another angle, France failed to score many goals in its last two matches. It could not finish what it developed on several occasions. Germany, on the other hand, looked dominant in every match it played, no matter what the score line was. Germany will fall heavy on France and win it 3-1.
So far all knockout ties has been closely contested and this match is likely going to be another hard fought game where the winner will be crowned in extra time or possibly on penalties.
Looking at the performance of both sides in the round of 16, French side looks to be the team in form while the Germans look shaky at the back and lost for ideas in the final third.
It’s a massive game for both sides as they hope to qualify for a place in the semi-finals of 2014 World Cup against either Brazil or Colombia.
Anthony Nlebem
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