In front of 14.000 spectators in the Allianz Arena in Munich the German fans saw their team starting concentrated without being reluctant as shown by Joshua Kimmich getting booked after only 7 minutes. Either way it was France who created the first proper chances. Paul Pogba missed a header after a corner kick before Manuel Neuer warded off a shot from Kylian Mbappé, one of the most noticable players of the french team until then. The chances for France became more serious and after 20 minutes the team led by Didier Deschamps took the lead: Mats Hummels drove the ball inside the own net after a cross by Hernandez.
Germany responded with Thomas Müller (22′) and Toni Kroos (23′) – without any success. After the goal, the game was played mainly in midfield in a harsh way by both squads. Only Ilkay Gündogan made it to the opposing penalty area, unsuccessfully (37′). The Germans controlled the ball pretty well but in most cases, the last and decisive pass was missing. That way, the first 45 minutes ended with a scarce lead for France.
The Germans came out pretty motivated in the second half. Especially Serge Gnabry challenged Hugo Lloris two times (54′, 57′), though without getting him into huge trouble. On the other side Germany had luck when Mbappe’s amazingly played-out goal was disallowed (66′). Afterwards, the match used itself up a bit, since none of the teams created chances indeed, until the 77th minute: Mbappe once again was stopped in the last instant. It was not the last scene in which Joachim Löw’s team benefited from the referee’s decision: the alleged 2-0 scored by Karim Benzema was disallowed as well due to an offside position of Mbappé during the assist. Germany collected its entire force to score the equalizer and had chances with Leroy Sané (87′) and Kevin Volland (90’+5). None of them could intimidate Lloris which meant the final win for France against the world champion of 2014.
Picture: ZDF