Germany have certainly benefited from familiarity to some extent at the Euro 2024 so far as the team has managed to win both of their group matches quite comfortably. This time, they have ensured their qualification to the knockout phase, but with whom they are yet to meet? and is Germany to win Euro 2024?
They are three times winners of the European Championships but they have not tasted victory for almost a decade now, the last time being in 1996. Germany crashed out at Euros three years ago in the round of 16 and were beaten 2-0 by England, the team that finished as the runner-up.
Concerning the probability rating set by Opta, the Germans are the third favourites to win this year’s UEFA European Championship after the English and the French teams, with a 15.9% chance of winning.
They started their tournament with Scotland and a 5-1 trouncing and would want nothing more than to finish at the top of the group. If not for the actual occurrence of such a situation, due to how overly saturated with favourites of reaching the final Group B is, Germany could have a really difficult path to the final.
Germany road map to the final of the Euro 2024 in Berlin
Group stage fixtures
5-1 against Scotland (14 June 2024, 8:00 PM, Allianz Arena München)
2-0 against Hungary (19 June 2024, 5:00 PM MHPArena)
Switzerland (June 23, 2024, 8:00 PM, Deutsche Bank Park)
Germany and possible match-ups in knockout stage
In case of success in Group A, they will be faced against the second place teams in group C which we believe will be Denmark. If they manage to get past that, the next possible opponent would be the winner of Group B – which most would expect would be Spain.
Then there is a possibility of the semi final with Portugal, Holland or Slovakia in the coming days. The final could possibly be Germany facing France or even England.
Germany key players regarding this year’s European Championship
Germany’s top Euros Golden Boot Contender: Kai Havertz
Many other European countries appear to have more easily definable goal scoring forwards, but one reason why Germany may be more hopeful than they were at any point in the autumn is Havertz’s strong second half of the Premier League season with Arsenal.
He has scored four goals in his last seven internationals and has taken on penalty duty, he scored from the penalty spot against Scotland (where Germany shared their goals among five players).
In other areas, however, it will be dangerous to underestimate Niclas Fullkrug. Although he is more or less a backup throughout this tournament, Fullkrug in 17 games for Germany including vs Scotland has 12 goals and has not hit the net just five times. He scored in his first international match and then scored two more in his first three matches at the World Cups as the Germans were eliminated from the group stages.
Then, as Germany engaged in friendly matches in 2023, Fullkrug maintained two distinct three-game scoring series intermingled with two matches in which he did not succeed in scoring, playing under 25 minutes in each of the described matches.
Germany Main Playmaker: Florian Writz
Remarkably, Florian Wirtz is still as young as 21 years of age, and this really only narrates half the story of the lightning tempered talent. He has this air of experience around him, but still, he is only a midfielder, this lad, having joined the German national team setup at the age of 18, two months after his first appearance in the Bundesliga.
He was among the most promising talents from Europe towards the close of the year 2021, however, a prohibitive ACL damage he incurred in March 2022 halted his development.
Soreness in the ankle knocked him out until the beginning of 2023, however the Wirtz is back and in a scintillating form that epitomised that he hardly missed any action . Wirtz was involved in the creation of 74 downright attacks within the current Bundesliga season and only seven players had more. He also broke the 10+ goals and 10+ assists benchmark before the end of the season in the Bundesliga.
They include a lot of expectation, which is always attached to the young talents such as Wirtz together with the youngster in the team Jamal Musiala. Both scored against Scotland and, in fact, are now the nation’s youngest ever goal scorers at Euros. Some have referred to them as the new Podolski and Schweinsteiger’ but the playmaker has been quite quick to dismiss such compliments.
“They are idols from the past, and we are happy to be compared to them. But we don’t want to be the new Podolski and Schweinsteiger. We are different types of players and try to showcase our own qualities on the field. However, it’s an honour to be compared to them’’ said the young footballer.
Germany card magnets & top tacklers: Maximilian Mittelstadt
Germany will also be influenced by Maximilian Mittelstadt who aims to make his mark for the team this year in the Euros. The new addition to the senior team is the Stuttgart left-back as he was called to the national team after impressing in the league with Die Roten occupying the third position in Bundesliga.
Mittelstadt is more of a defensive full-back but has offensively contributed to four assists out of thirty chances created in the Bundesliga this season.
He ranked second from top in the Bundesliga tackling with 91 and was 9th highest with 46 on interception. However, Mittelstadt also had 28 fouls and five yellow cards received.
Germany rising star: Maximilian Beier
Germany has some young players already starting their journey in the team with Wirtz and Musiala. However, it is Maximilian Beier who seems to be the next big thing right now. Thus despite being only 21 years old Beier is having a truly breakthrough year at Hoffenheim playing in the Bundesliga after spending two seasons on loan in the second division for Hannover.
For instance, in the season of 2023/24 he had 16 goals in 33 games within the league and was successful in scoring two goals against Borussia Dortmund and scored one goal against Bayer Leverkusen. He will be a valuable addition to the playing team in case he is selected.
Germany Tactical Analysis and Formation
Nagelsmann has been in charge of eight games as Germany tactician since succeeding Hansi Flick and he has employed three strategies: a 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 formation. In six campaigns, a 4-2-3-1 has been utilised; sometimes a 4-4-2 and then a 3-4-2-1 with different levels of effectiveness.
If we are going to make a small criticism then it’s a question how this fits a squad that has been out of form for the past 18 months or so and Nagelsmann is obviously working out what this system is.
Finally, the formation often applied by Nagelsmann most of the time, especially in Bayern Munich was the 4-2-3-1 system. In this system Nagelsmann is looking at Toni Kroos and Robert Andrich as the double pivoters playing against Netherlands, France and Scotland where Ilkay Gundogan moves to the number tenth position. However, there are players like Aleksandar Pavlovic and Pascal Groß to rely on other outlets.
For this formation, Kimmich shifts to right-back while at centre-back Rudiger and Jonathan Tah and at left-back, we’ve got Maximilian Mittelstadt. However, there was some doubt between the posts but Nagelsmann has made it clear that Manuel Neuer is his first choice in the goal.
Horizontal up the pitch, Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala supported Gundeogan, and Kai Havertz emerged as the preferred starter for the centre forward position.
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