Poor Tactics Cost Germany Dearly as Portugal Cruise to Final of U21 Euros

Germany finally met their match on Saturday when they came up against Portugal in the semi-finals of the 2015 Under-21 European Championship and were comfortably beaten 5-0. 

Ahead of the match, much had been made of the minor disparities in quality between the two sides, and so such a result will undoubtedly go down as something of a major upset for not only the German FA, but also for youth football as a whole. 

Going in to the tight tie, German coach Horst Hrubesch went with the bold move of starting young central midfielder Johannes Geis. The recently acquired Schalke player is well skilled in his box-to-box antics and was clearly included in the first team to sit alongside Emre Can and fortify the centre of the park.

Portugal’s strength has lied in their central midfielders Bernardo Silva and William Carvalho throughout this tournament, and as such, Hrubesch had every intention of flooding the midfield with physical players like Geis—and unlike more attacking talents such as Max Meyer and Leonardo Bittencourt—and forcing the Portuguese to come up with a different solution.

Unfortunately for the Germans, that’s exactly what Portugal did in the opening exchanges, with the right-sided forward Ricardo Pereira making short work of left-back Cristian Gunter and his central defensive team-mate Dominique Heintz.

This was only too notable when the forward skipped past Heintz in the 15th minute and cut a pass back to Sergio Oliveira, who unfortunately smacked the post of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal. Germany had got away with a warning when in truth their opponents should have been a goal ahead.

Yet it took only 10 minutes for Portugal to strike again, and this time they didn’t miss. Carvalho pounced on a loose ball from Amin Younes and set Silva off on the counter with all the ferocity and precision we’ve come to expect of the Monaco starlet. The young midfielder played a lovely one-two with Ivan Cavaleiro and simply breezed through a German setup designed to keep him quiet.

Before Hrubesch’s side even had time to react, the Portuguese doubled their lead through young Pereira when he tapped in a corner just seven minutes later. Defending set pieces has been a problem for Germany for much of this tournament, but to lose a goal to Portugal in such a manner simply wasn’t good enough.

Just as Germany were beginning to dream of the respite of half time, Cavaleiro added another to make it 3-0 in the 45th minute. The favourites for this competition were in free fall as they walked off the pitch at half-time. Players bickering at one another and Hrubesch standing with his hands on his hips.

Unfortunately for fans of this Germany side, it has indeed been tactics and player selections that have continued to dog them despite their progress through the competition.

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

To take nothing away from a genuinely impressive Portugal side—who may well have won the game against any tactic or collection of 11 German players—much of Germany’s poor luck throughout the match was in fact down to the manner in which they were setup before the game.

Despite having quite easily the strongest squad in the competition, Hrubesch has continuously opted to play reactionary football as though Germany were the underdogs in each of their games.

Rather than play the abundance of attacking talent in this team—Max Arnold, Bittencourt and Meyer to name but a few on the bench on Saturday—and actually overload teams as Germany have done for decades, this side looked defensive and preferable to counter attacks.

It's a tactic that has caused trouble against Serbia and the Czech Republic and one that ultimately cost them dearly against Portugal.

Similarly, the decision to start Gunter at left-back as well as Nico Schulz as a defensive winger in front of him was a perfect example of the German coach playing it safe when in truth his team should have been far more attacking from the first minute.

Unfortunately, the second half began just as poorly as the first when Joao Mario smashed a deflected shot past the German 'keeper after just one minute. 

The German eyebrows that had been raised during the break when news came through that Hrubesch was bringing on Meyer—a player who hasn't shown an ounce of his talent this summer—for Geis were quickly lowered again in sheer grief. 

Silva was subbed off to stay fresh for the final just five minutes later, Ricardo Horta made it five 20 minutes after that, and then Bittencourt—who came on immediately after the fourth goal—picked up a second yellow card and saw red. Germany couldn't have been worse. 

The introduction of Bittencourt—at the time—was perhaps a move in the right direction, but at that point the damage had been done. Portugal had both feet in the final and Germany were more than ready to get the game over and get themselves back on the plane. 

The history books will perhaps remember this match as one in which a fantastic Portugal simply brushed their opponents aside on their way to probably winning the competition, but in truth, it was a summer of anguish for Germany. 

Each win or draw in the group stages was one that came about almost in spite of Hrubesch's tactics and team selections, and ultimately, this was 90 minutes of a very good team against one that never really had a chance from the very beginning. 

Follow @sbienkowski