The game went to the 25th minute.
After patiently passing the ball through their own midfield for several minutes, Germany created a good opportunity.
Cross pulled to the left wing and then received a pass from Draxler. Seeing that De Sciglio had blocked his path, Cross immediately dunked the ball back and then raised his foot to knock back.
Center forward Werner, who had already wandered outside the penalty area, immediately shot a shot in the corner of the penalty area after receiving the ball. Bonucci pounced on him and blocked it with his body. Draxler, who followed, shot again, but he was returning to defend. Barrera and Tonali failed to hit the ball under the attack, and Donnarumma easily confiscated the ball.
After getting the ball, Donnarumma did not waste time, but immediately ran two steps forward, and then kicked off with a big kick!
This is also one of Pan Yi's requirements for the goalkeeper, that is, the goalkeeper should also be the first choice to launch an attack.
But obviously, Donnarumma's kicking ability is not particularly good. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that hinders him from truly becoming the world's top goalkeeper.
Now his kick is powerful enough, but the direction is a little wrong. The ball flies directly to the wing, and then Kimmich, who is back on defense, controls the ball at his feet.
Little Chiesa immediately rushed towards him.
Kimmich is a young and mature player. Like his predecessor Lahm, he can play as a full-back or a midfielder. Today, Loew assigned him to the right-back position to strengthen defense.
He was also very calm in the face of Chiesa's pressing, and immediately raised his foot and passed the ball to Thomas Muller a little ahead.
After taking the ball, Muller passed the ball across and handed it to Cross who retreated to the center. Cross sent a direct pass. Werner took the ball again, but was rudely knocked to the ground by Chiellini.
The referee also blew the whistle immediately and whistled a free kick.
This was a direct free kick only 25 meters away from the Italian goal. Of course, it would make Italy nervous, but the Germans did not score.
In this German team, players with relatively high free kick skills include Kimmich, Reus, Kroos and others. Reus did not start today. After discussion, it was decided that Kroos would take the kick.
But the German's cooperation obviously didn't work out. Kroos's free kick actually hit Muller who was standing in front to help screen and roll the wall.
Then Draxler stole the ball from Verratti, who was a little slower in delivering the ball, and took a long shot from 30 meters away, which was saved by Donnarumma again.
Continuous attacks can only be completed with long shots, which also proves that Italy really values the defense in the penalty area.
In addition to blocking confrontations, they will never be weak when it is time to foul, even if they give the opponent a chance to give a free kick.
"Although Kimmich and Kroos' free kicks in the German team are good, their efficiency is not very high. I still have confidence in Donnarumma." Pan Yi said this before the game, and judging from the facts This is indeed the case.
In addition to the free kick that was directly facing the goal, Germany also received several free kicks that were not in a good position in the following games, but whether they were direct shots or coordination, they did not pose a threat to Italy's goal.
The reason why the German team was able to get so many free kick opportunities was, of course, first of all because they had the advantage on the field.
They continue to look for opportunities through penetration in the middle, while Italy strengthens the pressing in the midfield while firmly guarding the penalty area, and immediately launches counterattacks to contain the opponent's offense when there is an opportunity.
But neither side got a good chance.
Italy's counterattack was inherently inefficient, not to mention that the flanks were not pressed too lightly due to the heavy defensive pressure, resulting in a lack of support from the front.
In Germany, although Werner, a forward who runs very actively and always wants to find good shooting opportunities in the Italian penalty area, Bonucci and Chiellini are also outstanding central defenders with both reputation and strength, and they also did not give Germany's offense too many opportunities. Chance.
After rattling everyone's nerves with a goal right from the start, the game quickly became a stalemate.
Although the fans of both sides watched nervously, neutral fans couldn't help but find it a bit boring. However, now that there are more and more boring games in the World Series, the fans are somewhat used to it.
Especially when one of the teams in the competition is Italy...
In the 35th minute, Germany finally almost equalized the score through a persistent attack in the middle.
Muller, who returned to the midfield, sent a beautiful through ball. Werner succeeded in countering offside. Fortunately, Donnarumma struck in time. Werner was forced to near the baseline and crossed with his foot. Chiellini, who was being defended, made a pass. Header clearance in the penalty area.
Italy immediately launched a counterattack at Pan Yi's signal.
Italy's two full-backs pressed forward at the same time and launched an attack, almost catching Germany off guard. In the end, Barrera passed back to Verratti, who went straight into the penalty area. Chiesa forced a breakthrough and then started from a small angle. He volleyed with his foot, but Neuer quickly fell down and saved the ball from the baseline.
Then Italy began to defend again, and Germany continued to attack, but it was obvious that their offense became more careful.
This situation is what Pan Yi likes to see.
He just wants to make a sudden attack to deter his opponent. In this way, the arrogance of Germany's attack will be greatly reduced, and Germany's offensive rhythm will be forced to interrupt. This will naturally be more beneficial to Italy's subsequent defense.
However, offensively, Pan Yi was not particularly satisfied with Italy's performance today.
Mainly due to the lack of support from players on the wing, even if Barrera was positioned higher today, the front three could rarely create good opportunities.
Scamacca is a stand-up center. Although Chiesa and Insigne have good skills, it is still too difficult for them to really rely on their personal abilities to completely tear apart Germany's defense. a little.
They are not Messi or Neymar after all!
"Fortunately, the opponent didn't have any good chances, and I still had a ball in my hand. They were the ones who were anxious."
Thinking about it, Pan Yi turned his head and glanced at the coaching bench next door.
Sure enough, Loew, who was standing on the sidelines, had only two words written on his face: "depressed."
He expected that the Italian team's defense was so strong.
But conceding the ball right after the start completely disrupted his pre-match plans.
Then Italy's defense was also very targeted. In addition to guarding the penalty area, the destruction in the midfield constantly disrupted Germany's offensive rhythm. Although the German offense seemed lively, it always seemed awkward. .
As someone who has coached the German team for many years, he certainly knows how big a problem it will be if the offensive side always plays awkwardly.
He also knew that Germany's defense was definitely not as good as its offense. If the opponent's counterattack was not very efficient, perhaps the victory of this game could be determined by just relying on a one-goal lead and continuous counterattacks.
Loew even considered making a substitution at halftime.
Now on the two wings of the German team, Draxler and Muller have their own characteristics. For example, Draxler's skills at his feet are very delicate and his dribbling ability is particularly good, while Muller's movement response ability is even more outstanding;
But they also all have a common weakness, that is, they are not very fast. Facing such a dense defense in Italy, even if one gets rid of one, a second person will immediately come up to block it.
This also shows that Pan Yi's efforts on the Italian team's defense have not been in vain. Now Italy's defense has some of the Italian chain defense style in terms of regional defense and mutual complementation, even if it is not so proficient, in It is enough even when Germany's breakthrough manpower is somewhat lacking.
So, to break through such a steel defense line, Loew really needs to consider strengthening the speed on the wing.
"It would be great if I recruited Sane into the national team." Loew couldn't help but regret it.
Among the German team's World Cup roster, Sane's failure to be selected can be said to be the biggest controversial point.
Sane spent a perfect season with Manchester City this season. He helped Manchester City successfully stop Chelsea's consecutive championship momentum, won the Premier League and EFL Cup double crown, and also achieved 100 points in the Premier League to win the championship. .
In terms of personal data, Sane has played 32 times in the Premier League this season and contributed a double-double performance of 10 goals and 15 assists. The number of assists is second only to Manchester City king De Bruyne's 16 assists, ranking first. Second in the Premier League assists list.
It is precisely because of Sane's outstanding performance that he also won the title of the best young player in the PFA Premier League in the 2017-18 season.
But this talented player was not selected for the final 23-man roster of the German team, which is really hard to understand.
From a positional perspective, Sane's biggest competitor is Draxler, plus Brandt.
Compared with the two of them, Sane is faster, has better and more comprehensive skills, and can be used as a hot spot in the frontcourt and a quick counterattack, but his team awareness is relatively weaker.
Team awareness and overall football are precisely the core of the German team, which is also the biggest reason why Loew gave up on Sane.
But now, when facing a defense like Italy's, it's impossible not to miss Sane's quick breakthrough...
However, Loew could only think about it.
He also quickly thought that with Pan Yi's tactical ability, let alone Sane not being in the team, even if he could play today, Pan Yi had plenty of ways to deal with him.
Sane is very strong, but how is he better than Aguero, better than Di María, and who is he compared to Messi?
In the warm-up match, the Italian team was able to shut down Argentina's powerful trident. How could they be afraid of a 22-year-old youngster?
Loew now can only hope that Germany can equalize the score during the entanglement, so that he can more easily arrange the next tactics during the halftime break.
After all, today is only the first game of the group stage. Even if there is a tie, it will not have much impact on the following games.
This is why Loew doesn't move much.
The first game is important, but it is precisely because there are two games ahead that he has more to consider.
Pan Yi also knows this, but he dares to take risks in this game - this is due to the super self-confidence he has accumulated from winning many battles over the past few years.
Seeing that the first half has reached 40 minutes, after a fierce attack, the German players' physical strength has also dropped a lot, and they began to slow down and wait for the intermission.
Their offense was quite awkward, so I hope the coach can make timely adjustments to change the situation during the halftime break.
But Pan Yi discovered this keenly. He immediately changed his original intention, stood up, and directed the team to attack aggressively!
Anyway, the opponent is not good at counterattacking quickly, and the rhythm has slowed down. Now even if he presses forward, he is not very afraid of the opponent taking advantage of the situation to counterattack!
Seeing Pan Yi getting up, Loew's heart immediately tightened.
He is a famous fan of Pan Yi. He has studied a lot of Pan Yi's tactical theories and on-the-spot command methods.
Pan Yi suddenly stood up on the sidelines like this, which meant that he had to take action!
Seeing such an action, Loew would certainly feel a little nervous.
But the problem is, he doesn't know exactly what action Pan Yi is going to do.
Although Loew is considered a well-known coach in the world, he is still far from the top. An important reason for this is his shortcomings in on-the-spot judgment and changes.
Therefore, now he can only stare at the field with wide eyes, trying to understand what changes have occurred in the Italians and what Pan Yi is thinking.
Then, the changes in the Italian team on the field were immediately apparent.
Italy stepped up its frontcourt press, and with the help of Scamacca, Varela intercepted the ball from Plattenhardt's feet, and then immediately passed it to Tonali on the right.
Tonali gave the ball to De Sciglio who came up and ran forward. De Sciglio immediately passed the ball to Tonali's feet. Tonali made a fake pass to lure Kimmich to intercept the ball. , and then began to break through forcefully!
He rarely made personal breakthroughs on the wing, and his sudden appearance immediately stunned Kimmich.
After breaking through to the bottom line, Tonali made a pass. Chiesa received the ball from behind and shot a volley. The ball passed between the legs of Boateng, who was defending. Fortunately, Neuer reacted quickly and made an accurate judgment. He lowered himself down and hugged the ball tightly in his arms.
Seeing that such a threatening attack by the opponent was blocked, Loew breathed a sigh of relief, and then shouted loudly on the court: "Counterattack! Counterattack! Don't let them seize the opportunity!"
He understood that Pan Yi was going to launch a counterattack before halftime!
This is also Pan Yi's usual routine, which is to suddenly increase the speed at the beginning and before the end, catching his opponents who are mentally and physically slack off guard.
He has already done this once at the beginning of the game, and now he does it again at the end of the half?
Of course Loew didn't want to see this.
If you want to do it, let’s do it together!
So he directed his players to cheer up again and use offense to swamp the Italian team!
Pan Yi chuckled.
To be fair, the decision Loew has made now is quite correct.
Firstly, it gives the players a backbone and knows what to do at this time. Secondly, with Italy pressing forward, the defense will not be as airtight as before. If they take the opportunity to equalize the score, it will be quite beneficial to Germany in the next game. of.
However, the German team players have already decided to retreat. Can the hasty arrangement have such a good effect?
There may even be differences in understanding among players, resulting in tactics that cannot be executed perfectly.
However, under Loew's constant urging, the German tank still cranked up the accelerator and rumbled towards the Italian position.
Italy, on the other hand, slowly retreated, fighting and retreating, and retreated to the front of its own penalty area to defend.
This time, Germany no longer struggled with Italy in the midfield. Kroos and Draxler continued to play short passes, and then Kroos quickly broke through from the right and almost entered the penalty area.
Fortunately, De Sciglio returned to defense quickly and took a risk with a flying tackle to shovel Kroos out of the baseline with the ball.
Since the ball was tackled first, the referee only gave a corner kick.
Seeing that there was not much time left in the first half, most of the German players pressed forward, trying to seize the last few opportunities to equalize the score.
However, Pan Yi made a few gestures on the coaching bench, asking Chiesa and Insigne, two relatively fast players, to stay in the frontcourt and not to return to defense, and even left center Scamacca in the frontcourt. Front.
At this time, Loew's attention was all in the Italian penalty area. He was also busy directing his players to carry out what might be the last threatening attack in the first half, so he did not see Pan Yi's movements.
But this action that was ignored by Loew also made him swallow a bitter pill a minute later.
Kroos took a corner kick and was cleared by De Sciglio's header from behind. The ball fell to Tonali's feet, and Italy immediately launched a counterattack!
Verratti, who inserted at high speed, received Tonali's long pass, and then immediately distributed the ball to Spinazzola, who also inserted with determination from the left.
Spinazzola moved forward very quickly. The opponent's Muller was competing for a header in the penalty area. Goretzka was also positioned very advanced, because both central defenders had already entered the Italian penalty area to compete for the header. For this reason, Kimmich, who was guarding this side, was also defended in the middle, so he was not hindered at all when he rushed forward.
After receiving Verratti's pass, no one came up to defend him. Spinazzola did not break forward directly. Instead, he looked up and observed the situation in the penalty area and saw three attackers in the frontcourt. His hands had already rushed into the opponent's penalty area, and there were only three people defending them. They immediately raised their feet and passed the ball directly into the penalty area.
Scamaca runs forward while observing where the pass will land.
Spinazzola's pass was a little bigger, but it was still within the penalty area.
Scamaca rushed to a place close to the baseline before the ball started to fall downwards. Scamaca blocked Kimmich who had hurriedly returned to defense, then jumped high, flicked the ball, and sailed into the penalty area. .
Chiesa rushed forward, got rid of Plattenhardt's defense, and then easily pushed against the falling ball before Neuer rushed to block it!
A push shot from just four or five meters in front of the goal!
"The ball has gone in!!! Chiesa! Federico Chiesa! Two to zero! Italy has expanded its lead!" Lineker jumped up in the studio with his hands raised, "Beautiful and fast Counterattack! The German defense is like paper!"
"Just because of this ball, Chiesa's achievements in the Italian national team have surpassed that of his father!"
"His father Enrico Chiesa was also an Italian international in the 1990s, but he only played 16 times for the national team and scored 4 goals. The only goal in a major competition was scored in the European Cup. of."
"In the World Cup, the old Chiesa participated in the 1998 World Cup in France, but did not score a goal."
"Now, Chiesa has scored a valuable World Cup goal for the Italian team and also helped the team lead the previous champion Germany!"
Lineker was praising Chiesa, but more people on the field and in the stands were still in shock.
Mainly because Italy's quick counterattack stunned everyone.
No one expected that Germany, which had the upper hand in the first half, would fall behind by two goals like this.
To say that Italy's counterattack was not very fast, Tonali and Verratti even controlled the ball back and forth for a while in the midfield, waiting for Spinazzola on the wing to press, but Germany just pressed too much. It's a little further forward, and the gap left in the backcourt is a little too big...
"I really don't know what happened to Germany just now. They suddenly pressed so far forward and left two or three players in the backcourt. There was such a big gap in the middle..." Alan Shearer also shook his head and said.
Between Germany and Italy, he certainly tends to support Italy, but he still views this goal more for tactical considerations.
Loew looked at this scene in a daze. Just now he asked the team to press forward and fight back the opponent's counterattack, but he didn't ask them to press forward like this.
There were only two full-backs and one Goretzka left in the backcourt. Everyone else rushed into the opponent's penalty area. It looked like he waved his hand, and then all the members of the German national team rushed towards him with cheers. Going up...
No matter how you look at it, it seems like it’s all your fault!
And just when Loew was still doubting his life, the referee had already blown the whistle to end the first half.
Italy leads Germany 2:0!
"We did a good job in the first half!"
In the locker room, Pan Yi came up and praised everyone.
"But don't forget, there are still forty-five minutes left in the game, don't relax! Continue to defend like you did in the first half, disrupt their offensive rhythm from the midfield, and then use counterattacks to divert their offensive energy !”
Pan Yi emphasized: "Also, in the midfield, even if it is a foul, it will disrupt their offensive rhythm. It doesn't matter if they get a card, as long as they can stop their attack!"
The players all looked at each other, but they were all professional players and understood what Pan Yi meant.
After all, this is only the first game of the group stage. As long as they can qualify from the group, even the players who were sent off will most likely be able to continue playing after the knockout rounds begin. By then, the players who have just finished their suspension will be innocent and get a piece of the game. A yellow card will not result in a suspension.
This is also commonly known as "shuffling", and many teams aiming to win the championship will use this strategy.
As for the specific tactics, Pan Yi did not make many changes.
He believes that with the execution ability of the current group of players, as long as they can disrupt the German team's offensive rhythm as he said, there will be no big problem!
