Sometimes, the key tactical feature of a game is subtle.
A decoy run made by a forward, a full-back playing higher than usual, or a winger drifting inside,
which slowly builds pressure or creates chances that don’t quite result in goals.
And sometimes, it’s absolutely blatant:
as it was in Germany’s 4-2 victory over Portugal during the group stage of Euro2020.
It’s difficult to recall another top-level game being decided by
such an obvious tactical ploy. Joachim Low kept his wing-backs high and wide, and Germany scored
all four goals — and had another disallowed for a marginal offside — in very similar fashion.
Low’s decision to persevere with his heavily criticised 3-4-3 system was a bold move but
it has paid off spectacularly. In Germany’s loss to France in their tournament opener,
there had been positive signs when Joshua Kimmich
overlapped down the right and when Robin Gosens stayed high and wide down the left.
Their combination play against Portugal, though, was far beyond what Low could have hoped for.
While 3-4-3 on paper, in possession, Germany formed an extremely aggressive shape. It was 3-2-5
and at times, something more like a 1-4-5 — with the two wide centre-backs, Antonio Rudiger and
Matthias Ginter, spreading wide to almost become full-backs, and the two central midfielders,
Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gundogan, remaining central ahead of Mats Hummels, effectively the sweeper.
This provided Germany with a solid base to guard against Portuguese counter-attacks,
which - with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo’s opener,
which originated at an attacking set-piece – they largely prevented.
Further up the pitch, this allowed Germany to push their wing-backs forward and form a front five.
The wing-backs were often the most advanced players, along with centre-forward Serge Gnabry,
who offered runs in behind, and this front five overloaded Portugal’s back four,
always leaving a man free at the far post — usually the left-sided Gosens.
There was a good example from the opening minutes. It was five against four:
a simple numbers game. Bernardo Silva, playing on the right of midfield in Portugal’s 4-1-4-1,
effectively needs to drop in and become a fifth defender.
But they still had problems. Initially, this came because Germany’s right-sided centre-back, Ginter,
pushed forward into crossing positions. This ball to the far post was converted
spectacularly by Gosens, although it was disallowed for offside.
Ginter kept on attacking, however, and Germany’s build-up play concentrated down the near side.
That meant, then, that the spare player in Germany’s front five
was always Gosens at the far post.
Here’s another example, taken from the eighth minute, of Gosens in a huge amount
of space on the outside of Nelson Semedo, with Kimmich switching the play to him.
And another situation, with Hummels this time playing a diagonal out to Gosens.
The most notable aspect is the positioning of Germany’s front three. Gnabry is occupying
both centre-backs while Kai Havertz and Thomas Muller are perfectly positioned in the channels,
ensuring that Portugal’s full-backs are narrow and unable to defend the flanks properly.
And, here’s a further example of how they were dragged inside and then unable to
defend on the outside. Hummels is show in possession in the 18th minute and Portugal
left-back Raphael Guerreiro is concentrating on Havertz, in the channel. Hummels, though,
dinks the ball to Kimmich on the near side, Guerreiro desperately tries to cut out the pass,
but ultimately, his starting position was slightly too narrow and Kimmich is in behind him.
And then came the goals, which all came directly from Germany’s obvious game plan.
For the equaliser, Kimmich received the ball on the right, again spotting Gosens free at
the far post, switched the play and Gosens’ volleyed cross-shot bounces in off Ruben Dias.
The second goal was almost the reverse. This time, it was Kimmich free on the near side. Muller took
two attempts to float the ball towards him and then Kimmich was free at the far post,
and his ball across resulted in another own goal.
It was alarming that a coach as experienced as Fernado Santos had no solution whatsoever to
Germany’s dominance down the flanks. This was not a surprise system — Low continued
with the shape and starting XI from Germany’s opening game — and yet Santos had no response.
Sides struggling so desperately to track opposition wing-backs often end up switching
to a five-man defence themselves but it’s difficult to recall Santos ever
using that system with Portugal and he continued with the back four throughout.
At half-time, he sacrificed Bernardo and introduced Renato Sanches in his place down the
right flank, perhaps in the hope he’d prove more capable of tracking Gosens. That wasn’t the case.
When Muller slipped in Gosens on the outside,
five minutes into the second half, Sanches was in no position to stop him.
Gosens squared the ball and Havertz arrived ahead of the Portuguese centre-backs to score a third.
Sanches clearly couldn’t stem the flow, so Santos’ next attempt to fix the issue was Rafa Silva,
who also proved unable to cope with Gosens’ attacking quality.
Gosen is good in the air and so while Silva did a better job of tracking his runs, he still wasn’t
in a position to stop him heading home the fourth. It came, of course, from another Kimmich cross.
But this wasn’t really about Bernardo’s lack of tracking,
Sanches’ lack of tracking or Silva’s lack of tracking.
It was about the system and one which has changed the face of a rejuvenated Germany.