Before their match against Ghana, Germany had scored 58 goals in 20 matches and had scored in 19 of their last 20 World Cup group games. The last time they had a 0-0 draw in the World Cup was against Mexico 28 years ago before the Berlin wall fell and they were known as West Germany.
Simply put — this is a team that loves to score. Germany has also never lost a penalty shootout in World Cup history. So basically you will concede against Germany and in the knockouts, you cannot expect to take them to a shootout and beat them.
Ghana were fearless against Germany. AP
Which leaves one option — take them on, attack them, harry them, frustrate them, don't back down and don't be afraid to go forward thinking they'll punish you on the break. If a team allows Germany to take charge of a match, they will be punished — so it's better go out with a fight than go out like how Portugal did — hammered 4-0.
Ghana did exactly that. From the off, they showed their muscle, bumping off the Germans — especially Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze and Toni Kroos. Fourteen out of 23 Ghana tackles were made on these three players. They also won all three of their aerial duels with Thomas Muller, who was the tallest German attacker on the pitch until Miroslav Klose came on.
There were two major areas where Ghana really excelled — the first being the number of interceptions they made. In Germany's 4-0 romp, the Portuguese made only nine interceptions out of which just five came in their own half. Ghana made 23 interceptions and 30 clearances, stopping the ball in key areas. The Germans love working the ball into the box, and they played a lot of low crosses which didn't result in a goal, forcing Germany to try something different. Ghana kept them thinking, never allowing them to settle.
The number of interceptions also indicate that Ghana were not man-marking Germany — they didn't wait for the ball to come to an attackers feet, they stopped it earlier.
Ghana interceptions vs Germany
The other area was attack. Ghana was happy to come forward even before Germany scored. When they fell behind, Ghana responded by scoring the equaliser within three minutes. Overall, Ghana played six through balls to Germany's three.
The Germans were wary of them in the first half itself when they completed three passes into the attacking penalty area — as many as Portugal in their entire World Cup opener. In just 45 minutes, Ghana sent in 10 crosses and created four goal-scoring chances. In the entire game, they created 11 goal-scoring chances compared to Germany's nine — five of these from inside the box and three on the edge of it. Portugal also created eight chances — but just one from inside the box.
Ghana were fearless in their goal-scoring approach too and not shy to test Manuel Neuer. They smashed seven shots in the first half and 19 in all.
Ghana chances created in 90 minutes
The Germans were not expecting a team to show them no respect after what they had done to Portugal. But Ghana played without fear and in doing so showed the distinguished four-time champions that even they can be rattled.
The writer tweets @TheFalseNo9
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