Germany came out victors 2-0 over Peru in a match that went almost as expected. Germany were wasteful but still comfortably ahead, Peru gave a couple spots of bother and focused on trying to disrupt Germany’s play through physicality rather than a structural solution.
Jersey Swap: Pedro Gallese
Peru conceded many chances to Germany, and the score could’ve been much higher had it not been for some heroic saves from Pedro Gallese. The Peruvian shot-stopper, who currently plies his trade in America with Orlando City, made multiple stops from close range off the efforts of Niclas Füllkrug, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner. It was wasteful from the Germans but not always was it the fault of the attackers. A fantastic performance in a losing effort.
Der Kaiser: Nico Schlotterbeck
Nico Schlotterbeck is massive. That is really the only way to describe him.
The Borussia Dortmund defender was once again at the top of his game, continuing a rich vein of form at club level. Schlotterbeck was dominant on the ground, winning numerous duels and tackles, and was strong in the air too. Schlotterbeck’s qualities on the ball were as present as ever, with his ball from deep creating the opener after some scrappy inter-play between the attackers, as well as a mazey run between three defenders which saw him eventually win a penalty after he was brought down by a poorly placed foot from Luis Abram. A top class performance, one that will cement his place in the XI for games to come.
Fußballgott: Marius Wolf
Germany’s play was focused on using half-spaces using the attacking midfielders in the 4-2-2-2, and often the double pivot in the middle would be absent for build up play for large sections of the game, rather the build up focused down the wide areas, earning Marius Wolf this spot. Wolf was the sole constant down the right flank, linking up with whoever he could find available to himself. He was solid defensively and great in the attack too, the highlight being his perfectly threaded cross which would meet Füllkrug’s path for the second goal of the night.
Der Bomber: Kai Havertz
The German attack was rather wasteful tonight, with some misses from Kai Havertz himself and a hall of shame performance from Timo Werner, but Havertz was a lot more active throughout the game.
Havertz’s movements between the lines was disruptive of Peru’s defensive structures, often causing the midfield to come out of position to mark him and opening space for David Raum and Marius Wolf out wide as well as Joshua Kimmich to make some runs through the middle. The Chelsea FC man did smack a penalty off the post, but at that point you’re just unlucky. Important to note he was the one who received the ball from Schlotterbeck in the lead up to the first goal, flicking it on (maybe unintentionally?) to Füllkrug. It was a pretty good performance amongst a set of average to poor ones.
Meister of the Match: Niclas Füllkrug
The ‘poster boy of German football’ according to the Sony commentary team, put in a fantastic performance.
Füllkrug was the key cog in the Germany attack, pulling all of the system together with his presence up top. Füllkrug provided the pivot for everyone to function around, most importantly Havertz, Werner and Florian Wirtz early on in the game. Füllkrug’s presence was constantly felt by the Peruvian defense, with his positions in between the defenders combined with Havertz’s disruptive runs opening spaces often. It was this combination that caused the positional mess from which Füllkrug would capitalise to score the opener, and his second would be a beautiful one touch take from the aforementioned Marius Wolf cross. Füllkrug had multiple chances to make his brace a hat-trick but could not due to some wonderful saves, however this performance was still top class despite the possibility of a higher goal tally.
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