Germany: Thoughts on the 1-2 Win over Denmark and the Group Stages

First of all, congratulations to Joachim Loew’s men for coming through a very tough group unscathed. The Germans really won the three games in different manners, and I will reflect on that later in the article. First of all, let’s look back at the game against Denmark.

The game started off just like games involving Germany did in qualifying. Germany had a lot of chances. They scored the opener through Lukas Podolski who was earning his 100th cap. Soon after, the Danes equalized through a header from Michael Krohn-Dehli. This is where one must be critical of the Germans.

Time and time again, weakness at defending corners has come to their detriment. They lost to Spain to a headed goal in 2010, and Bayern found themselves pegged back with a header as well in the Champions League final. I identified this as a weakness of the Germans in the tournament preview and once again it came to the fore.

As the game progressed, German slowly but surely began to resemble…yes…FC Bayern München.

The possession stats were in their favour. The opposition could not get the ball off of them. The defence had just three chances really to deal with in the second half.

And just like Bayern München, they failed to find a way through a well organized defence. Lest I forget, Mario Gomez resembled the Gomez from the final third of the season.

Perhaps most people will say that the Germans were being cautious as they knew a draw would see them progress. However, they were just not able to find a way to goal. When they eventually made the breakthrough, there was a sense of relief in the camp. Now going back to the 60th minute, Joachim Loew showed where Germany and Bayern differ.

Loew took off the largely ineffective Lukas Podolski for the burgeoning Andre Schuerrle. He took off Gomez for the evergreen Miroslav Klose. And Germany got their goal. Schuerrle sped up things. As Denmark went for the winner, Germany countered. They started off with Klose, and when Klose was prepared to score, he slipped. The ball kindly fell to Lars Bender who finished coolly.

For Lars Bender, the moment was one of magic. The Bender twin, who has had to be content to be second to his brother, who plays for the German double winners Borussia Dortmund, was almost close to tears. His performance on the right side of defence was also quite good.

However, I do feel that Loew will be happy to have Boateng back for the next game as the defence looked slightly uneasy compared to the other games. Overall, though, Loew made a brave decision going with Bender ahead of the tried and tested Benedikt Howedes and, once again his brave decision paid off.

Now, let’s take a look at the entire group stage. Germany is the only side going through with a full complement of points to the next round.

These are five thoughts on it. Firstly, Germany showed they can win in every way possible. Against the Portuguese, they won a game in which Portugal had the better chances. Against the Dutch, they went back to their counter-attacking approach and won. Against the Danish, they controlled the game from start to finish and won.

Bayern fans will recall Gomez tipping the hat after some of the goals that he scored for the Bavarians. The Germans now should tip their hats to Mr. Joachim Loew. Loew made two huge changes by introducing Mats Hummels and Gomez for two seasoned performers. And his moves paid off. He made the correct substitutions in each game and in no game was the impact of his subs seen better than in the last game of the group stages.

While the whole team has performed well in the group stages, the best performers have been Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Mario Gomez and the two defensive midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira. Thomas Mueller has just not had the luck in front of goal while Lukas Podolski was quite ineffective despite the goal he scored.

Germany’s play from set pieces has improved. Schweinsteiger’s deliveries have been on the money while Mesut Oezil’s ones have been occasionally good, too. Schweinsteiger, who does not take the set pieces for Bayern thanks to a certain Arjen Robben, has shown that he really is the one who can deliver during dead ball situations.

And finally, living up to the "favourites" tag is never easy. The Germans lived up to their billing in the opening round despite the heart-break the bulk of the squad suffered not too long ago. The mood in the camp has been good and now, instead of having just eleven players to call on, Loew has a 23-man squad to choose from.

Not bad from a squad that is the youngest of the tournament!

And so, the Germans can sit back and await the Greeks. Can they maintain their perfect record? For now, Loew will not worry. He, in a long time, has finally seemingly found the perfect Germany.