when speaking about “classic match” in the history of major tournament then one sensational example considers the duel between two of the European’s most prestigious and successful football nations, Germany vs Italy. it was the most eye-catching game of quarter-final and Germans cruised to an emphatic and breath-taking penalty-shoot out win against their old rival. perhaps this match witnessed an ultimately complicated tactical indication and illustrated a superbly strategic identity in terms of style and performance from both side the entire night. the most appealing scenario of this match emphasized on Germany’s mainly prolific attacking possession against Italy’s incredible defensive philosophy, the main strength and catalyst of each side respectively that blended with evidence of highly complex managerial tasks equally.
Jawim low evidently presented his attacking system with plenty of talented options to deliver, while he intended to switch the order of his set up with Khedira and Kroos partnership in central holding midfield with their usual trademarks, monitoring intelligent off the ball mobility when pressing and generating energetic ball circulation and constant change of pace at possession as Ozil and Kimich deploying wide to ignite more crafty combination play and high tempo passing movements with relatively direct intent which seemed so crucial to their game plan of winning open spaces to make quick attacking transitions inside Italian’s static central mids and igniting speedy combination high up the pitch with aim to break De Siglio and Florenzi timely runs across the wide channels, and allowing Ozil and Kimmich to create sharper interchanging play with Muller drifting inside Italy’s back-three along with full backs pushing higher to maintain the continuity of attacker’s movement and keeping passing dynamic, the effort clearly squeezed Italy’s backline into deep defending with slim chance of winning open run and hitting pace to counter, only Giaccherini offered alert runs with his fine touches up front and their central midfielders mostly intended to tighten up press instead of looking for a opening pass. nonetheless; German attackers ambitious movements barely looked penetrative to create clinical finishing and they could have conceded before half time. Chielini sent a perfect cross-field pass over German defense for Giaccherini similar to their first goal against Belguim as he braced into the ball with good pace cutting it back into center of the box and after a narrow deflection, Marko Sturato smashed his shot which went wide after Boateng timely clearance. Hector beaten the challenge of two defenders on the left before hooking Kross with a chance to shoot, his attempt instead directed wide into Gomez path before he setting Muller to finish it, but he misconnected with a accurate finish and Buffon save it. Germany provided continuity to their high tempo passing play with purpose and agility and they eventually took the lead inside the 75th minutes. Neuver long ball suddenly caused Florenzi to led the ball slip behind him for Gomez on the left flank, he surged higher up the channel with a composure to paused and slicing a break-pressing pass inside three defenders that timed Hector’s fine overlap run to hit the penetration before his sharp cut back cross deflected off the Giaccherini to hit extra swing bounced over Bonucci as Ozil braced and smashed his perfect low range shot into the near post. their dynamic pace and constantly fluid passing deservedly put them up front. they nearly inspired to win the contest five minutes later with a great chance that could have done much better by Gomez. Ozil exchanged a short play with Kimmich and drifting inside before dinking a fine cross over defense into path of Gomez, but instead of turning sluggishly hooked it up with his chest that took him away from goal and Chilini’s timely effort combined with Buffon’s brilliant one hand save, denied Germans the second goal and with few expecting Italy’s capability to equalize, Low’s side regretfully dropped to lower extent of concentration in leading to Italy’s goal. in the 78th minutes, Florenzi managed to hook up to the corner rebound on the right as he cut inside before sending his cross into the box and while Jerome Boateng marking Chilieni’s header, his hands blocked the ball and gifted Italy a penalty kick, Bonucci accurately converted from the spot and sent his bench into a wild celebration. they gained more confidence to go forward and three minutes later, De Siglio burst forward and sent a wide pass and Pelle fired his dangerous left footed shot that went inch wide of the post. this tactically intense and breath-taking duel went to extra time with Conte brought in Insigne for Eder to offer little bit creativity and flair in counter-attack as both team looked exhausted towards the end and with high pressing line and Italian’s resiliency in defense, German truly hadn’t find the way through and Penalty shoot out was there to decide the winner. the shoot out proved very complicated and dramatic as the numbers of missing kicks appeared to be unique in the recent history. Insigne calmly converted Italy’s first kick when sending Nuever the wrong way, Toni Kroos hit a perfect shot to the top corner to level the terms, but the crazy moment came here, being brought in for PK, Simone Zaza stepped behind the spot and displayed an extremely weird “nip-step dancing” move that will be considered as one of the most hilarious scene in the history of this game for very long, sent Italy’s first shot over the bar, Buffon dived to his left when saved Muller’s first Germany kick, Barzagli converted the second for Italy before Ozil’s kick hitting the post despite Buffon being sent a wrong way. while Italy had the lead, Pelle loosely sent his weak attempt wide even thought Nuever would have saved it and it allowed Drexler to level terms, Bonnucci wasn’t able to repeat his equalizer success in the second attempt and Nuever perfectly saved it to his right to set Schweinstinger with a chance to win it, but Manchester United experienced star, sent his attempt over the bar as the scenario still continued, Giaccerini confidently scored the round and followed by Hummels converting his attempt despite Buffon’s little touch, Parolo easily hit the next shot, so as Kimmich before De Siglio scoring the next one and Boateng made up for his mistake to Italy’s equalizer to beat Button to far post, but when Neuver saved Darmain kick then Hector made no mistake with a little luck to beat buffon and lifted German a place into semi-final
