Germany’s soft underbelly Scotland never really managed to threaten Germany in the host’s opening match of the tournament. But Hungary threatened multiple times and really made Germany sweat for long periods of the game, exposing a potential soft underbelly of Germany. In that sense, Switzerland merely continued where Hungary left off by getting at Germany, just with more efficiency than Hungary did.
Both teams focused on quick, precise and direct counter attacks through the middle once the ball was won and continually reaped rewards for this kind of attacking behavior from a Germany team that still cannot deal with it. But it was not just through the center where Germany struggled..
. The balance on the right was all wrong Germany’s right side was..
.strange. None of Germany’s attacking quartet wanted to play on the right side, continually drifting into the middle and robbing Germany of an option to play out wide.
Joshua Kimmich made up for some of the lack of width, but this led to the Bayern Munich player picking up some very, very aggressive positions, in turn forcing right sided center back Antonio Rüdiger to step forward and consistently unbalancing the backline. Even in a settled defensive position, however, the duo of Kimmich and Rüdiger struggled. It is not surprising that the goal Germany conceded came from a cross from the right side, as well as the big chance conceded straight after the goal, as well as the offside goal Switzerland scored.
Kimmich and Ru.