France advanced to the final of Euro 2016 at home soil after their sensational victory against world champions and tournament’s legit favorite Germany in a what essentially described as the “pure identity of Europe’s pedigree and classic international duel” as both teams already heated up the arguments of playing the best football match in this summer and highly considered as two best contenders over past few years. Germany sealed a 1-0 quarterfinal win against France en route to their 2014 world cup triumph and this match appeared to set the benchmark for both teams and host nation ultimately won the battle to play Portugal on Sunday night.
the insight assessment of Didier Deschamp’s challenge to select his best starting and to adapt the most ideal formation in this tournament has been a widely subject of his concerns and as part of a tremendous pressure he carried on to lead the team to their final destination which he perfectly managed to deliver this mission in fully satisfaction in Stade De Velodrom at Marseille tonight. Joachim Low’s Germany meanwhile has indicated a sufficient tactical structure and vital quality factor as it was expected to navigate their way to Semi-final, although their overall performance has slightly dropped a superior cutting edge they famously produced in the last few years and therefore; they have been criticized for not having the same firepower this time around. Deschamp’s risky but brave decision to deploy Griezmann into central attacking creator or “number 10 role” defined an incredible vision to French excellent winning strategy as Atletico Madrid man produced a vital glimpse of creativity and flair in the heart of attack and was the sole inspiration to win the match with his two goals. with Griezmann playing in the central role, Oliver Giroud and Dimitry Payet mainly played as wide attackers with tendency to switch inside runs as Giroud becoming a front man with his off the ball mobility to provide space for Griezmann to interchange with Payet behind Giroud when they had possession, while Griezmann highly offered continuity and timely change of pace to orchestrate neat passing build-up when dropping little deeper in the midfield to switch the forward play or when operating in advance position to link up with wide attackers, accordingly allowing deeper mids like Pagba to control the pace of transitions with ability to maintain a crucial pressing against Germany’s dynamic midfield play in which had the partnership of Kross-Khedira to win off the ball in press and opening passes, a crucial possession build-up for their attackers to create movements, nonetheless French vital play in the midfield and specially denied Germans to dictate their interactive “press-breakaway off the ball movements in transition to energetic attacking possession” rhythm in reliance of three auxiliary central wingers, whom tend to constantly swing and drift over the final third from flanks to ignite high pace runs in pocket of exploited spaces, the ideal approach to mainly high tempo passing play from Low’s side, but the vital evident dedicating to full success of this style of play demanding a cutting edge finishing, which has thrived Germans in nearly last decade, in contrast was missing significantly in this Euro and they eventually suffered from that issue. Thomas Muller never replicated his fantastic striker form we have seen in the world cup and previous major cups and largely affected his team’s overall execution focal point. Mario Gomez have shown more efficiency to play “false number 9” role throughout this campaign, however; his impact nearly provided the team with more purpose to understand his movements rather than actually killing the chances in the way it required them to compete for the glory. moreover; Mario Gotze struggled to stabilize himself as pure finisher, whom possess skills and neatness to create behind the striker in general, those facts indeed emerged a problematic force to deepen Low’s attacking plan and while they have been pushed on the wire when reaching this stage, France finally punished them with far more defensive strength and game plan.
This victory will definitely underline the glorious transition of French football to re-generate a new era of their re-newed pedigree and extremely promising international reputation for their great tactical display and winning character. while Antoin Griezmann sparked a bright flash of skills and vision to inspire their attack, Pagba and Matuidi performance in the midfield provided essential sharpness and truly intelligent remarks that bolster a great balance between their initial compact defensive pressing task to their efficient and dynamic strategy all night, particularly Pogba who tipped to be the star for France in this tournament as he necessarily has shown sheer tactical versatility and ample vision to prove that statement, but he further became the integral element of Deschamps highly flexible and adapted tactical masterpiece, imposing deft to team’s change of the guards when pressing, being so appealing to command the purpose of passing movements and imposed an energetic contribution to coordinate passing movements and more importantly his understanding to read the pace of the game when joining attack, increasingly offered his midfield fellow an immense confidence to move the ball with an effective tempo and mobilizing open runs between the flanks, shielding good spaces for their defense to interact a composed pressing line in their deep zone with timely turning their shape of static back four or becoming three holding drifters to win tackles as two full backs pushing wide to link up play. Griezmann enthusiastically masterminded France crafty combination and delightful change of tempo with his lethal runs and beautiful touches, dictating the pace of attacks that merged with precision of passing abilities across the midfield as Pagba sound change of run from deep holding role to define the basis of their extent of possession tendency to anticipate “the opening runs to generate crafty combination play with Griezmann” provided a rhythmic approach to destabilize Germany concentration to win press, while Giroud became free to offer open spaces for Griezmann and involving Payet to drift high up the flanks to exchange short play with two attackers with continuity and flair, which mostly stretched gaps over German wide men. their defense also must be credited for their steady level of concentration and organization in the way to limit German young attacking players like Draxler, Kimmich and Emre Can, whom appeared to interchange forward passes in reliance of Ozil as their main creator, who as usual orchestrated the rhythm of their neat passing build-up to ignite vita change of pace when the waves of speedy exchange of open runs accordingly offer plenty of short exchanges between full backs and wide attackers like Muller, Kimmick and Drexler to keep the mobility of their off ball very high with aim of igniting crafty combinations with flair and dynamic pace as Kroos, Ozil and Schweinsteiger one of the wide attackers tend to break opponents, but they ultimately failed to deliver their vital penetration factor, largely duo to Muller’s lack of finishing play as it was the case in this tournament and further for being limited to hit the vital pace to overlap and exploit the pocket of spaces over French back line as they occasionally appeared to form some neat combination play out wide to send in crosses and shooting from long range, but with Ozil mostly was pressed between his markers, Germans never truly produced clear cut chances.
now France fights Portugal 0n sunday with plenty of quality and tactical vision put them as the favorite against Ronaldo and his teammates. it is very hard to see how Portugal will manage to find instruction in keeping their strategic defending order, pressing with energy and imposing efficiency to ignite fine counter-attack play against host nation in front of their fans. Deschamp eventually put the pieces of puzzles together to find the best formation for his team and with plenty of gifted individuals like Griezmann, the star of tournament and Pagba they adapted to most reliable and sustainable attacking strategy and beautiful style.
