France vs Germany: Tournament favourites start the campaign with a slender victory

Germany hosted France in an exciting group stage fixture at the Allianz Arena. An own goal from Hummels was enough for the world champions to bag the three points as two other goals from Mbappe and Benzema were ruled out for offside.

Bolstered with fine talent, the French set out as slight favorites for the clash. Getting the first three points of the tournament, however, didn’t turn out to be child’s play for Les Blues.

Both the sides fielded inclusions who made comeback to their respective national sides after a considerable time frame. Karim Benzema last played for France in 2015. Meanwhile, Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels were back in the squad for the first time since 2018.

Didier Deschamps’ side were all about the combination of Mbappe, Benzema, and Griezmann. With Germany dominating possession right from kick-off, the French were comfortable in sitting deep and taking the counter attacking route. Although they didn’t seem capable of getting on the ball for prolonged periods, one of their attacks forced the own goal from Hummels. Pogba’s diagonal ball across Germany’s penalty area found Lucas Hernandez, who squared it in with pace. The veteran centre-back wasn’t left with enough time to direct it to safety, and ended up firing it into his own net.

Although Germany evidently held onto the ball much better than their opponents, they couldn’t mange to get it into useful positions to extract something monumental out of it. However, their second half display was a much better example of their ability to dictate the flow of play according to will.

In spite of the significantly incisive progressions, they could not register their presence on the score-sheet. Their finishing in particular let them down in most cases. However, one positive for Joachim Lӧw’s side from this eventful clash is that they possess the ability to stay composed on the ball throughout 90 minutes, which may come in handy during tight fixtures like these.