Euro 2016 - Germany break Italy hoodoo

Italy had never lost against Germany in a major tournament while the Germans had never lost a penalty shootout. But last night it seemed, the Germans were desperately trying to lose a penalty shootout for the first time. For the first time since 1982, a German missed from the spot in a shootout. Thomas Muller's miss put an end to a quite remarkable run of 22 consecutive penalties converted and another miss came shortly after. But in the end, the Germans were able to break the Italy hoodoo in a major tournament as the penalty shootout advanced into the sudden deaths.

I loved Mats Hummels’ Kaiser-like role last night. As the Italian defensive midfielders stifled Mesut Ozil and Toni Kroos. Hummels topped the charts for successful passes and take-ons. His composure, creativity and experience will be missed in the semifinal as he received a yellow card in two consecutive games.

Germany’s 4-2-3-1 transformed into 3-5-2 last night. He sacrificed a winger (Julian Draxler) for an extra center-back, Benedikt Howedes – a mirror image of Conte’s tactic and it was a smart move to outweigh Conte’s moves. In 2012, he engaged Toni Croos as a central midfielder to match the class of Andrea Pirlo and scarificed the winger-capabilities of Marco Reus. This time around, he got the formation right.

Those who love to enjoy the game from a tactical point of view would have enjoyed last night’s game. The first half was all about tactical moves and mind games: the battle to dominate the midfield and unbalance the opposition was evident. Three German defenders stranglehold Pelle to cut short the spaces ofr him while Eder shadowed Kroos’ role as a deeplying playmaker and Parolo battled gamely.

Italy missed Daniel Di Rossi last night who was unfit to play and as Thiago Motta was suspended, Stefano Starto was moved into the midfield and Parolo was set to play Rossi’s role. Parolo played well, but it’s hard to replace someone like Rossi.   

The Germans came out of the suffocating condition created by Italy and pressed higher up the pitch in the second half. Muller missed a brilliant hold-up work set up by Mario Gomez. Gomez bombered down the flank at a rapid pace and wobbled the Italian defence and in the 65th minute, Ozil gave Germany the lead.

It could have been 2-0 a few minutes later. Gomez stayed just to the right side of the offside trap and ended up clear, in front of Buffon. The last thing you expected was a flick, but that's just what Gomez delivered and Buffon, somehow, batted it away even with a faint deflection off Giorgio Chiellini.

A careless mistake by Boateng helped Italy to equalize and the game went into extra-time. 

But the extra-time was not a dull affair. Germany had the chance to kill the game. It was a 3-on-2 counter, but Draxler's assist for Muller was just beyond the reach of his long limbs. Conte kept on pressing Germany’s midfield, but the game went into penalty shootout and the Germans laughed the last laugh.

Antonio Conte’s team won the hearts of the critics and fans and surely, Conte deserves a lot of credit for galvanizing this average team into a fighting unit via his tactical genius.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar