Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, 04.07.2014
France

1-0 (1-0)
Hummels 13. / –

After being made to work hard in their second round tie against Algeria, Germany faced their toughest challenge of the competition against in-form neighbours France, a team tipped by some pundits as potential tournament winners. Nationaltrainer Jogi Löw had come in for plenty of criticism after the Algeria match for his team selection and tactics, and responded by going back to basics.

This was the first meeting between the two teams since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and a the fixture that had produced some classic matches over the years. While there was little of the drama of that famous meeting in Seville in 1982, it was a high quality contest between two very good sides – settled by Mats Hummels’ early header.

Minute-by-minute Match Report »
Match Analysis & Player Ratings »

Germany: Neuer – Lahm (c), Boateng, Hummels, Höwedes – Schweinsteiger, Khedira – Kroos (90+2. Kramer), Özil (83. Götze), Müller – Klose (69. Schürrle)

France: Lloris (c) – Debuchy, Varane, Sakho (72. Koscielny), Evra – Cabaye (73. Rémy) – Pogba, Matuidi – Valbuena (85. Giroud), Benzema, Griezmann

Referee: Néstor Pitana (Argentina)
Assistants: Hernán Maidana, Juan Pablo Belatti (Argentina)
Fourth Official: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)
Fifth Official: Mathias Klasenius (Sweden)

Yellow Cards: Khedira 54., Schweinsteiger 80. / –
Red Cards: – / –

Ball Possession: 50% / 50%
Attempts on Target: 6 / 9
Attempts off Target: 2 / 4
Corners: 3 / 5
Fouls Committed: 18 / 15

Attendance: 74,240

Man of the Match: Mats Hummels

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.